


A Fool Who's Willing

by SeeingGhosts



Category: Grease (1978), Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greasers, F/F, F/M, Greaserlock, M/M, Multi, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-03 00:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 50,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1724822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeingGhosts/pseuds/SeeingGhosts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johnny Watson is the new kid at Rydell for his senior year, but his summer fling with Shezza Holmes, the leader of the T-Birds, ends up coming back around to him. The fact is, they're in love. The other fact is, no one can know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Grease is the Word

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Grease, nor do I own Sherlock, but boy - they are good together!

The school year was back in session right after the peak of summer. Walking out into the heat was like torture, but in every high schooler's mind being forced to head back to school was far worse. Aside from the few (often pranked) students who actually enjoyed learning, everyone came back with a scowl and a groan.

However, there were several good things about heading back to school. People could see their friends yet again, and then show off their clothing and new looks. Everywhere you turned there would be a leather jacket or a gleaming pair of patent leather shoes, red lipstick and - of course - lots and lots of hair grease.

But there was one spot on the campus with the most grease of them all - over on the bleaches, the T-Birds all sat together in a single flock. Almost as if they were on a schedule, they would each pull out their combs and fix up their hair. It was quite a feat as each boy had a cigarette in one hand and a comb in the other.

At the moment, there was no clear leader among them. But the few T-Birds who were assembled there radiated a feeling of power over others. Just by the way they walked and held themselves, they were able to maintain a grip over the majority of the school.

The fact that they didn't seem to do much of anything was sometimes bothersome to the other students, but if they were to say anything, they would find out that they were quite good at giving a punch. As the T-Birds tended to practice on one another, they were able to strenghten themselves to a point where they could easily defeat everyone else in the school - and elsewhere.

But, at least on this day, it was hot outside and everyone was feeling lazy. If they weren't reaching out to grab some food or comb their hair back, they weren't moving anything other than their mouths. It was just too much work.

"Another stupid year at Rydell," Moriarty scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "I don't get why we have to keep on coming back each year - we've already learned whatever there is to learn. It's just a waste of time."

"There's a reason why I sleep in half of my classes," Greg replied, letting out a laugh. "I don't know what Old Man Holmes is going to say about all of that, but I think that this year we're going to fight back."

"Oh, yeah!" Seb replied with a nod. "We're not going to take any of his crap anymore. Doesn't matter if he's Shezza's older brother, we don't have to deal with what he says anymore. We're seniors now, and the next thing we know we're gonna be outta here!"

"Speaking of Shezza..." Andy said, starting to move forwards to be a more prominent member of the group. He tended to be forgotten by all of the others, and he realized that the only way to be heard was to speak up. "Where is he?"

"I think he's hanging over by the girl's locker room," Moriarty said with a short laugh.

"Don't understand why. It's just the same old tramps that everyone's seen since kindergarten," said Seb.

"Really?" Andy said, his voice becoming even higher pitched. "Wait, wait. I see him. Hey, hey Shezza! Shezza, what's going on?"

"Way to go, Andy," Greg sighed. "Keep it down, would you?"

"No, no, he's coming around this way," Andy said, shaking his head. Their eyes all followed Shezza as he made his way over towards the group. While he was never officially called the leader of the T-Birds, it was clear that he was the cleverest, the boldest, and the overall greatest. Besides, his dark curls certainly looked fantastic when it was filled up with hair grease.

There was something about him that radiated with an enigma. Whenever he wore his leather jacket, he would always flip the top up in order to highlight his cheekbones. Only one person had ever commented on it, but he didn't care much about what other people thought. It just didn't matter to him.

"So, Holmes," Moriarty began, being the only one thoroughly brave enough to intiate a conversation with him. "Any good-looking stuff over there?"

"What do you think?" Sherlock replied. "Just the same old chicks that everyone's made ut with this whole time."

"Shezza, where were you all summer?" Andy asked, scooting in closer towards him.

"Well, I spent a whole lot of time down by the beach..." Shezza began.

"Don't tell me you were hanging around the fuzz working on a case," Greg groaned.

Seb rolled his eyes as he leapt into the conversation. "Of course he wasn't working on a case. He was hanging out with broads! Did you meet any new ones?"

"Nah," Shezza began - but he wasn't meeting a single person's eyes. "Well, actually, there was one that was kind of cool, but-"

"Oh, I see, I see," Seb replied. "You're trying to say that she was easy?"

Shezza immediately rolled his eyes - he didn't have to think about it as it was an automatic gesture. "What a drag, you normal people! Especially you, Seb - I'd bet that you never thing about anything else!"

"I don't get why you're so surprised," Seb snickered.

"Oh, come on Shezz!" Greg said, beginning to scoot in closer. "You got a little, right?"

Shezza looked around at each of the other T-Birds in turn, setting up a scene where it appeared he would soon be revealing all sorts of juicy things about his summer. He had a flair for the dramatic, especially for when it came to things that were particularly secretive. He waited until he could pracically hear the buzz of anticipation flitting around in the air like a bee.

"It's none of your business, all of you guys!" he finally said. An audible sigh of disappointment rolled throughout the entire group of boys. Only one of the T-Birds dared to question the decision Shezza had made, but luckily he was the most persuasive.

"Oh, so  _that's_  the way it's going to be," Moriarty said. "I thought you liked storytelling, Shez. I guess I was wrong."

"Ah, you guys don't want to hear all of the steamy details anyways..." Shezza said, fully aware that he was only making the whole situation even worse - he knowingly made it all tantalizing, right out of their grasp.

"Sure we do, Shez!" Seb cried out. "Come on! You know we can't deduce it out of you!"

Shezza rolled his eyes as they brought up his seemingly supernatural ability. At the end of the day, his mind was what allowed the T-Birds to rule the school. He could see a person's life story at a glance just by observing their various details and using his mind more efficiently. But no one else seemed to be able to do it.

"Fine, fine," he said. "I'll tell you. But don't get too excited!" A cheer rose up among the T-Birds as they waited patiently to hear what he was about to say.

The Pink Ladies weren't too far away from the T-Birds - they set up their group together on an outside lunch table. It was the perfect vantage point where they could see just about anything they wanted to around the grounds, but at the same time didn't have to worry about being too bothered by any of the other students...at least, not usually.

The first Pink Lady to sit down was Molly Hooper. She wore her Pink Lady jacket with pride, making sure that the rest of her ensemble was pastel colors to match. Every little detail was precisely planned out, right up to the bubblegum in her mouth. Now and then she would purse her lips and blow a perfect pale pink bubble, then letting it go with a loud pop.

In fact, the only time Molly would stop chewing her gum was when she had to eat - which happened more often that people would expect from her waifish figure. Her lunch tray was loaded with whatever she could get her hands on, and still it wasn't enough for her. She was always on the prowl to find something else to eat whenever possible. If she could snag anything from someone else, she would.

Anthea, on the other hand, didn't care as much about the food. While she tried to put on an air of sophistication for the rest of the world, she found herself to be somewhat coarse on the inside. Nevertheless, she was like Molly in her attempts to make every little detail perfect. She adjusted her brand new cat eye glasses (there were three glittering diamonds on each side to draw even more attention) as she sat down at the table.

"Hey, Molly," Anthea began. At first, Molly didn't reply. She was too busy scanning over the various food items Anthea had on her tray.

"Hey, Anthea," she finally said after deciding that there was nothing worth trying to get right off the both. "How's your day going so far?"

"Not good," Anthea replied with a scowl. "But I'll explain it later when the others come around."

"Yeah, I think Adler's coming and Sarah is somewhere. They'll get here sometime."

"I just don't want to repeat myself," Anthea said.

"Anyways, my day's been going great," Molly replied, even though she was aware she hadn't been asked about it at all. "I mean, it's not really great because it's school, but everyone else seems to be having a horrible day."

"Oh," Anthea said. "That's wonderful."

"Actually, it is," she said. "I counted five boys who stared at me today. I don't know what it is about this year, but maybe something'll actually turning out lasting more than three dates."

"As long as you're not going out with Moriarty again, you'll be fine," Anthea sighed.

The two girls immediately fell silent the moment they spotted Adler into the area. Her heeled shoes gently clopped against the floor in a perfect beat. But although they were quiet, they immediately caught everyone's attention. Their eyes would start at her shoes and then rise up to see the rest of her.

No one would dare look away with just a single glance after that, however. Adler radiated feminity and maintained an air of absolute power - she had developed this similarly to the T-Birds. The only difference was that she could find more ways to manipulate it then they ever could. She never felt the need to look at herself in a mirror as she already knew that every last detail was perfect.

"What's with the silence?" she said as she sat herself down on top of the lunch table between Anthea and Molly. "I don't see anything to be silent about. Well, tell me this - where are the guys?"

"Being slobs," Molly replied after swallowing her current bite of food. "They won't even spend a time on their lunch, so they're bagging it! I think they ended up sitting down over on the bleachers or something."

"Are you surprised?"

"No, not really."

"We should go see them," Anthea suggested. "Once Sarah gets here, that is."

"Yeah, do you know what's taking her so long?" Adler asked. "She usually pops up the second you call after her."

"Maybe something's holding her up," Molly said. "Something...or someone!"

"I don't know," Adler said. "Haven't seen a glimpse of her all day so far."

"Well, that's just what I need," Anthea said, picking up her spoon and then allowing it to clatter down on the hard surface in annoyance. "More waiting."

"What are you on about, Anthea?" Adler asked.

"I feel like I've already been here for a whole year, and it's hardly even noon," Anthea said with a pout, resting her arms down on the table. "I don't understand how we're supposed to make it through this whole year if it keeps on going on like this."

"Maybe it'll be good," Molly said, giving a shrug. "I mean, it's just one more year."

"One more year in this place that's little more than a prison, am I right?" Adler suggested.

"Yeah, because you've probably seen the inside of a prison yourself. I'm sure you'd be able to tell," said Anthea with a smirk.

"Oh, is that what you think?" Adler replied, crossing her high heeled feet.

"Well, what if I took this rice pudding here and stuffed it down your bra? What would you think then?"

"I'll take it!" Molly cried out, reaching out to grab the cup from Adler's hand before the delicious contesnts could disappear down Anthea's shirt. With her mouth half full, she began to speak. "So, who'd you get for economics? Old Man Stamford again?"

"Yeah, he keeps on making passes. What a drag!"

"For real?" Molly asked, her mouth still filled to the brim with rice pudding. "He never tried nothing with me!"

"I don't think I've ever met a man who wasn't a complete dirty slob," Adler said, rolling her eyes. "Don't let it get to you, Anthea. It ain't worth it."

"Hm," Anthea said, looking up towards the sky. This problem had been plaguing her for years now, and she just wished she could get rid of it. She always ended up getting tangled with older men, and most of the time it didn't end well. "Well, do you want my coleslaw, Molly?"

Molly's eyes immediately lit up as she turned her gaze over to the food on Anthea's tray. She didn't see anything else she'd be able to take any time soon, so the coleslaw would just have to be enough for her at the moment. She took it into her own area and began to eat it, trying to think back about Sarah again. But as she sat there stuffing her face, she spotted Sarah - or at least, that's what she believed. The girl had only appeared for a few moments.

"Hey, is that Sarah over there?" Molly asked with her mouth full, trying to look over Anthea's shoulder.

"Nah, that's some other broad," Adler said.

"No, no, I see Sarah. She's right over there," Anthea said. "It's Sarah along with some guy."

"He looks pretty cool," Molly replied, giving a shrug. "Maybe they could even let him into the T-Birds!"

"Yeah, exactly what we need - another guy hopping around, trying to be a T-Bird."

"Well, Sarah seems to like him. Maybe we should give him a chance," Anthea suggested.

"I think they're neighbors now..." Molly said, tilting to see them better.

"More than neighbors, I'd say!" Adler replied with a shake of her head. "She's holding hands with him!"

"You think she got a new guy and didn't tell us?" Molly gasped.

Anthea leaned on the table in order to see everything better. "I don't see what else it could possibly be."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," Adler said. "But she could do worse."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "Grease" as heard in the movie version and Broadway revival.


	2. Days Drifting Away

Sarah rushed in, a boy trailing directly after her. Both of them wore enormous smiles on their faces like it was a part of their first day of school outfit and it couldn't possibly be taken off. The Pink Ladies were immediately transfixed on them, wondering precisely what was about to happen.

"Hi, you guys!" Sarah said, just about squealing out her words. She waited for the others to give her a greeting in return before she continued "This here is Johnny Watson, my new next door neighbor and well, my new boyfriend. Not that new, but you know." She let go of his hand in order to introduce him to the Pink Ladies.

With a bounce in her step, she began to walk around and introduce each of them by putting a hand on their shoulder.

"This here is Adler, and that's Anthea, and right here is Molly! I've told you about them, you remember."

"Of course," Johnny said, continuing to beam.

"Hi!" Molly said, unable to avoid the infectiousness of the smiles.

"Hello," he said, reaching out to shake her hand. "I'm pleased to meet you."

"Come on, Johnny, sit down!" Sarah said, sitting down in a chair and then pulling Johnny in beside her. She turned around to face her friends full on and immediately spotted the glasses on Anthea's face.

"Oh, Anthea, are those new glasses?"

"Yeah, I just got them for school," she said, propping her hand up on her elbow and resting her chin on her hand. She batted her eyelashes as she continued, saying, "Don't they make me look smarter?"

"Nah!" Adler cried out. "We can still see your face!"

"Ah, shut it, Ad!" Anthea said in response, rolling her eyes. The conversation immediately moved onwards - the group was used to one another being somewhat mean to one another. It was simply how their relationships worked.

"So, Johnny," Adler said, leaning over so that they could converse closer together. "How long have you been living here?"

"Only since July," he admitted. "My father was transferred over, so I had to come along too. But then that meant that I could meet Sarah..."

As the focus turned over towards Sarah, it became clear that something about the girl had changed. Only one detail had been changed, but it was enough to show that things weren't quite right. With all those eyes focused on her, she couldn't help but feel very self-conscious. Her hands flew up to her hair, starting to pat it around and check it.

"Hey, Sarah. Did you do something to your hair?" Anthea asked, adjusting her rhinestoned glasses in order to see better. As they were meant more for fashionable use and less for actual sight, this didn't help all too much.

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked in response.

"It looks kind of tough, you know?"

"Oh, oh. I just touched it up a little. Nothing all that special."

"I think it looks very nice," Johnny added in, leaning into the conversation himself.

"Hey, Johnny," Molly said, glancing over at his tray of food. "Are you going to eat that cole slaw?"

"Er, I don't know...it smells sort of funny. I'd hate to get food poisoning," he said, shuddering slightly.

"Let me warn you, Johnny," Sarah said, pursing her lips slightly. "Don't even think about trying the chipped beef - better known as barf on a bun!" The couple simultaneously shuddered, causing them to burst out in a few moments of laughter.

"Just barf?" Anthea said, grimacing slightly. "It's worse than that, trust me - Johnny, don't mind Sarah. Some us like to show off and use scurvy words."

"Some of us?" Adler asked, letting out a slight laugh. "Well, well, well. Check out Miss Toiletmouth sitting over here!"

"Really, Adler?" Anthea asked. She started to stand up, wondering if she'd have to end up picking a fight after all.

"So..." Molly said, finding the conversation to be far too awkward for her liking. "Johnny, how do you like the school so far?"

"Oh, it seems real nice. Sarah's here, of course, and that's a very good thing. I do have to admit, though - I was supposed to go to St. Bartholomew's."

"Supposed to?" Molly asked, tilting her head. She realized with a start she wasn't chewing anything and quickly rustled around in order to find herself a new piece of gum in order to start blowing bubbles all over again.

"Well, I kind of ended up getting into a fight with the people who were in charge..." His voice began to fade away, showing that he didn't want to get into details.

"What do you mean?" Molly pressed, completely ignoring the social cues that were being given to her. Sarah ended up gently hitting her on the back, but it was already too late - the words had been said.

"I had some money problems, you see," Johnny said. "Not had, really - I mean, I still have money problems. It's a private school, of course, and I just couldn't really afford it...but it worked out for the better in the end."

Before he could explain it any further, Adler let out an enormous groan. "Look who's coming this way - Kitty Riley. The bloodsucking leech of Rydell High."

"Really?" Johnny asked, following her gaze after to the bouncing ginger who was coming in their direction. "She doesn't look that bad to me..."

"She never does, until she's in your face," Molly said, a pout coming to her lips.

"Hi, kids!" The overly peppy voice of Kitty immediately brought a frown to each one of the Pink Ladies' faces. Without even asking, she sat down at their table and continued grinning along. "Well, aren't you going to say hello?"

"'Course not," Adler said.

Kitty didn't seem to be fazed by this at all - she continued right onwards with what she was saying. "I just love the first day of school - and guess what happened this morning? I was nominated to be the editor of the school newspaper! Me! Isn't that wild!"

Almost immediately, she spotted Johnny standing there. "Oh, you must think I'm horrible - my name is Kitty Riley. You must be new here," she said, holding out her hand to Johnny. He took it somewhat reluctantly. "I'm sure you'll be at the football tryouts next week, won't you?"

"Oh, I don't think so-"

"Ah, son of a bitch!" Anthea suddenly yelled out. Kitty's eyes started to bulge - she couldn't handle that kind of language. With a sigh, she ended up skipping away and leaving the Pink Ladies and Johnny behind.

"You did that just to get rid of her, didn't you?" Adler asked.

"No," Anthea said, moping. "One of the diamonds fell off my glasses and went into the macaroni."

"Of course it did," Adler said.

"So..." Molly said, wanting to change the subject. "What did you do this summer, Johnny?"

"I went to the beach before I moved here," Johnny explained. "It was nice, you know."

"But then he came here and moved into the house next to me," Sarah said, placing her hands on his arms and leaning into him. "That's when the real fun began."

"It all happened so fast, really," Johnny said. "You'd be surprised just how quickly it all came together. That's not to say that it's any less special because of that - in fact, it's probably even more special."

"All of those days drifted away, and now we're here in school again," Sarah sighed happily.

"Oh, really?" Molly said, already wrapped into the story between the couple. "Tell me more. I want to know."

Johnny took in a deep breath - while he certainly liked Sarah, as in really liked her, his entire summer had been focused around another person completely. No matter how attracted he felt to her, there was someone else who always seemed to be on his mind. But he couldn't say that, not in front of her and all of her friends.

"Do you have a car?" Anthea asked, trying to take her part in the conversation. She batted her eyelashes slightly behind her rhinestoned glasses. Johnny was about to reply when Molly elbowed her in the side - there were more important things to be discussed at the moment.

"It was love at first sight, wasn't it?" Molly asked.

"Well, it all started when we went out for a walk and drank some lemonade together," Sarah explained. "It was meant to be a sort of new neighbors friendly sort of thing, but it blossomed into something more. The next thing we knew, we were staying out until ten o'clock!"

"Ten o'clock," Adler repeated dryly. "I'm sure you must've gotten a thrill out of that one." Luckily, no one seemed to notice what she had said as the two continued to speak about their summer without a care in the world.

"You were so sweet," Sarah said, batting her eyelashes over towards Johnny.

"It was right after my eighteenth birthday," he continued after sending over another small smile to Sarah. "You know, it really did happen very quickly. But at the same time, it ended up turning out very well."

"Very, very well," Sarah replied with a giggle.

"What a drag," Adler murmured to herself. No, she knew Sarah could do much worse, but she wasn't all over this Johnny boy to begin with. He just wasn't the kind of person she was really into. But Molly and Anthea, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind at all.

"Hey, Sarah," Molly said, trying to whisper this time around. "How much dough did he spend on you?"

"Dough doesn't matter," Sarah said with a laugh. "What does matter is the fact that we spent all of our summer days and nights together, and it was wonderful."

While Johnny and Sarah continued to spill out details about their summer fling, the T-Birds were still pestering their leader in order to tell them precisely what he had been up to during the summer.

"Tell us about what happened, Shezza!" Greg said. "Come on, you told us you would. You've held out long enough."

"You're not much of one to break a deal, Shez," Moriarty joined in.

"I'll tell you, I'll tell you. I dunno what you guys did this summer, but I had a blast. I went to the beach and met someone who was absolutely crazy for me."

"Oh, tell me more," Andy said, starting to lean in. He wanted to be included in the group in whatever way he could.

"Did you get very far?" Seb asked.

"I was right about you, Seb," Shezza said. "You only think about that one thing, don't you?"

"What Seb thinks about isn't important right now. So. Tell me how it began," Moriarty said. "She obviously didn't just go for you right off the bat. What'd you do?"

"It was a favor, really," Shezza snickered. "I'm a life saver."

"Of course you are," Seb said. "So what'd you do? You didn't tell us."

"Let me make it simple - cramps, water, drowning. Without me - well, who knows what would've happened? Then, after that, everything started to really come together."

"Oh, she got friendly, did she?" Greg asked.

"Oh, yeah," Shezza said, nodding. "Down in the sand!"

"Did she put up a fight?" Moriarty asked, trying to get his own questions into the mix. Shezza didn't respond to him, but instead gave him a look before continuing to explain what he had done over summer break.

"We went bowling in the arcade-"

"I thought you were going to be telling us all the steamy details, Shez!" Greg cried out.

"And we made out under the dock," he completed. "Yeah, it might've just been a fling, but I don't care. It was good - you know just what I mean, yeah?"

"Sheesh, Shezza! There's no need to brag about all of it!" Andy said. The T-Birds were starting to rise up into a frenzy of noise and sound, all of them trying to pester Shezza at once. Hardly anyone could get a word in, until Seb raised his voice and spoke.

"Could she get me a friend?" Seb asked, raising his eyebrows. Everyone stopped to stare at him for a moment, but then it became clear that Shezza had just been reminded of something important. His gaze had been risen into the air, a sigh ready to float out of her mouth.

"I said we'd still be friends, but it all just kind of drifted away. There wasn't anything I could do. I just wonder what's happening now..."

Before he could finish what he was saying, however, the T-Birds started to become loud once again as soon as they saw the Pink Ladies coming over to where they were sitting. Well, it was the Pink Ladies in their silky jackets, and a boy. Conversations started up between the two groups, everyone speaking except for two - Shezza and Johnny remained silent.

"Sherlock," Johnny said somewhat quietly, his eyes widening. "Sherlock Holmes."

The only person who seemed to hear these words were Adler. She immediately ended up turning her focus towards Johnny and "Sherlock," as he had just been called.

Shezza turned around to see all of the girls plus Johnny standing in front of the bleachers. His eyes scanned over all of them, starting to deduce various details about what they had been through over the summer. But he soon spotted Johnny, and his eyes seemed to stick there for several seconds longer.

What the two had neglected to tell the others is that they knew one another - they knew one another quite well. In fact, the summer nights they had been telling all of their friends about were really spent with one another.

Johnny allowed his eyelids to close as he quickly thought through the situation - he knew Sherlock, or rather Shezza, had recognized him. But the boy had pretended as if he had never seen Johnny before in his life. Everything that had happened between them was going to end remaining a secret from the rest of the people are Rydell.

Shezza continued looking over towards Johnny, his mind trying to figure out precisely how he could handle this situation. Only one thing came up - at least, only one thing that would allow him avoid being embarrassed. He would just have to ignore the boy, pretend like he had never met him.

As the rest of the T-Birds and Pink Ladies began to chatter on, three people remained silent - Shezza, Johnny, and Adler. Of course, no one ever seemed to give Adler enough credit for how much she was able to observe by herself. She could see the gazes between Shezza and Johnny, and how they reacted to one another.

She could easily figure out the fact that the two of them had been spending those summer nights together - and now she could use that bit of information to her advantage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "Summer Nights," from all versions of Grease.


	3. A Melody That's Calling

The hallways of the Rydell were beginning to thin as the time for classes came sooner and sooner. But of course, there were several students who didn't really care all that much about whether they ended up on classes on time or not.

Andy, being a T-Bird, fit right into this group. Instead of heading to class, he'd decided to walk as slowly as possible. Part of it was simply because of what he was carrying around - slung around his back was a guitar he'd gotten over the summer and planned to show off to everyone else. The other part was due to the fact he wanted to seem cool.

Despite his slow progress across the hallway where the T-Birds were starting to gather, he ended up soon passing a girl in the hallway. It wasn't just any girl, however - it was Sarah, and it was evident she'd been crying. While she'd gotten rid of most of her tears, it was undoubtable that some of them still remained in her eyes.

"Aw, Sarah, what's the matter?" Andy asked, immediately making a start towards the sniffling girl.

"Johnny and I just broke up," she said, pursing her lips slightly as she began to swallow back her tears.

"Oh? Why'd you do that?"

"It just wasn't working out the way I wanted it to," she continued.

"What was it? Was he looking at other chicks?"

"No, it's just-" Sarah began, cutting herself out. "Listen, Andy, I don't really want to talk about it right now. I'm glad you're interesting in it and all, but I still don't like it."

"You still like him, then," Andy said.

"Kind of. It's complicated, and I don't want to talk about it. I think I've made that pretty clear overall...correct me if I'm wrong?"

"No, no, no, you're right," Andy said, immediately starting to backtrack on his words. He had realized that he was prying far too deep into her current situation, but he couldn't help it.

Ever since he first set eyes on Sarah, he couldn't deny the fact that his heart fluttered faster whenever she walked by. He had been rather disappointed when he found out she was dating Johnny - but now, this would be his chance. There was just something about her that enthralled him, and he'd never been able to pinpoint it. They'd hardly even talked to one another, and yet he couldn't push aside the feelings.

"I don't really know what to do," Sarah said with a sigh. "I'm sure I'll be over it in a week, but right now it's still too soon for everything to be all great. It's just too soon, you know?"

"Oh, yeah," Andy said, nodding his head up and down several times. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

Sarah gave him a slight nod in response, and it became clear to Andy that her attenion was drifting away from him. He'd never been the best at talking to other people, but now it was seriously beginning to affect him. Andy had been given the perfect opportunity to make a move towards Sarah, and he needed to take full advantage of it.

He nervously plucked at the air as he tried to think of something he could do to continue their conversation. Now that the opportunity had finally presented itself, he knew he had to do something. But then he realized he was carrying around the solution on his back - his guitar.

"Would a song make you feel better?" Andy asked. "I just learned how to play guitar this summer."

"Oh, is that the thing you've been lugging around on your back all day?" she asked in response.

"Yeah, it is," Andy replied, finding himself starting to smile. He could've let the small smile develop into a grin, but then he realized that his initial question hadn't been answered. "So, what about that song?"

Sarah pursed her lips slightly as she stood there, not quite looking at Andy or at anything else. She thought through Andy's offer, wondering if it would be best if she took it up. There didn't seem to be anything bad about it...at best, it would fix her mood, at worst she'd just get a song she didn't care for.

"Why not?" she said, shrugging.

No sooner had Andy pulled out his guitar was Shezza bounding over to talk to him about it. Getting attention from the leader of the T-Birds was certainly quite a good thing in his mind, but it was so sudden that he didn't really have time to think over what was about to happen.

"Andy!" Shezza said. "You've been taken guitar lessons over the summer?"

Andy shut his mouth - he had been preparing to explain this to Shezza, but he had forgotten about how he could just deduce things like that. Instead of allowing himself to say anything particularly stupid, he just nodded.

"Then you've gotta know some songs on it," Shezza said.

"Yes, he does," Sarah replied, making sure to step forwards. "Actually, he was just about to play me a song himself."

"Well, I don't know what I can really play," Andy stuttered, fumbling around with his guitar to get into place for playing. With the two people who's attention he desired the most fixated on him, he couldn't help but feel rather nervous about this entire situation. This was not what he was expecting to happen - he just wanted to cheer Sarah up.

"Here's a C!" he cried out, playing a quick chord on his guitar. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the rest of the Pink Ladies and T-Birds approaching their area. They must've spotted Shezza and thought that this was the center of attention.

"That's pretty good," Sarah said, giving a smile.

Now reinvigorated by this little compliment, Andy continued showing off what he could do. He continued hitting the chords to the best of his minimal ability, his smile growing with each one. "Then I know an A minor, and an F, and I've been working on a G."

"Hey," Sarah said. "Can you play 'Tell Laura I Love Her?'"

"Er, does it have a C in it?" he asked.

"How about some Elvis?" Shezza suggested.

Andy found himself beginning to pale - he couldn't play any of those songs. He really only knew how to play one song.

"Magic Changes by Ronnie Dell!" he cried out, beginning to strum. As he played each of the chords, he sang along with them.

" _C-C-C-C-C-C_

_A-A-A-A minor_

_F-F-F-F-F-F_

_G-G-G-G seventh..._ " He paused, waiting for Shezza and Sarah to say what they thought. The Pink Ladies and T-Birds were almost there, ready to watch him play.

"That's terrific," Shezza said, forcing a smile. But Andy ended up reading it as perfectly sincere, and continued his playing. As he continued, he seemed to go under a transformation. From out of nowhere, he seemed to be able to play with ease and then when he opened his mouth he sang just like someone you'd hear on the radio.

" _What's that playing on the radio?_

_Why do I start swaying to and fro?_

_I have never heard that song before_

_But if I don't hear it anymore..._ "

More and more people began to gather around the area. Soon enough, the entirety of the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies had sat themselves down around Andy in order to see the impromptu concert in the hallway. All they could hear was someone who was turning into a star in front of their eyes, playing and singing without a care in the world. For once, he was getting the attention he wanted.

" _It's still familiar to me_

_Sends a thrill right through me_

_'Cause those chords remind me of the night that I first fell in love to_

_Those magic changes_

_My heart arranges_

_A melody that's never the same_

_A melody that's calling your name_

_And begs you please, come back to me_

_Please, return to me_

_Don't go away again_

_Oh, make them play again_

_The music I wanna hear as once again you whisper in my ear_

*Oh, my darlin', uh huh."

If it hadn't been for the lockers lining the walls, the "audience" might've forgotten that they were in a school. It would've seemed like they were in the crowd of a concert, watching a famous singer performing for everyone else. For once, Andy was being impressive and managing to be the center of attention.

" _I'll be waiting by the radio_

_You'll come back to me someday, I know_

_Been so lonesome since our last goodbye_

_But I'm singing as I cry!_ "

A whoop went up among the spectators - all of this musical talent had come out of nowhere, that much was for sure. But certainly, no one really minded it. They'd much rather listen to good singing and playing rather than what they'd been expecting to get from Andy. No one ever found a need to expect much out of the boy, and now he was proving them wrong.

This immediately brought a rush of adrenaline into Andy, propelling him to go onwards with an enormous smile stretching across his face. This might be his only few minutes to make something of himself, because he'd been able to grasp the attention of Sarah, Shezza, and everyone else who was important.

" _While the bass is sounding_

_While the drums are pounding_

_Beatings of my broken heart will rise to first place on the charts!_ "

The song was just about to end, but Johnny came in to see the performance nevertheless. He'd been lost in the hallways on his way to his next class, so when he saw all of the Pink Ladies and T-Birds together he'd decided to head towards them. He sat down towards the back, not wanting to be in anyone's way.

" _Oh, my heart arranges_

_Oh, those magic changes_

_Oh oh, whoa-oh oh-oh_

_Whoa oh, oh-oh oh-oh, oh-ho yeah_

_Ooh-hoo hoo-hoo hoo hoo hoo!_ "

Andy made an overdramatic strum on his guitar, but it was covered up by the sound of his singing. He held out the final note for as long as he could, despite it being extremely high for his male voice.

Then, right on the cutoff for the last note, Molly popped her bubble and ended up making quite a loud sound. Her face began to flush the same pink as the gum, but no one seemed to have even noticed it. That is, no one except for the boy who was sitting right beside her. Greg decided against saying anything against it and instead tried to aim for a better conversation starter.

"So, Molly, how have you been doing this year?" he asked, leaning in towards her. The song was over, so he was free to talk. Her face was still flushed from popping the bubble so loudly, but she allowed herself to turn around and look at him.

"Pretty good," she said. "I mean, the school year's just begun. I don't really know how it's going to be, yet."

"That's good," Greg said, somewhat disappointed that their conversation was already beginning to dissipate.

In the middle of the chatter and chaos, Johnny met Shezza's eyes, completely by coincidence - but of course, Shezza didn't believe in coincidences. It became thoroughly clear that Johnny had broken up with Sarah, just by seeing it in his gaze. The news had already begun to spread about the two groups, but this was the first time Shezza himself was realizing it.

Maybe this was his chance to go to Johnny and try to explain things. Of course, he couldn't very well explain everything with all of his friends watching on, but he'd certainly try to go onwards and allow it to make sense. He knew Johnny was probably furious with him, but Shezza wasn't about to let that get him down. He was more frightened to get any of his friends involved in their relationship - but it already seemed to be too late for that.

But these feelings, even if he didn't fully express them, still hung in the air around the group. Conversations immediately turned quieter and more solemn, even the peppy one that had been going on between Sarah and Andy. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed.

"Something's going on here," Moriarty said. "Don't know what it is, but I definitely know something is going on here."

"Well, of course something is going on here!" Adler sneered. "You'd have to be blind not to see it."

"Then what is it?"

"Everything's been changing ever since Johnny boy came along," she replied. "Come on, you must've at least noticed that!"

"I noticed things started changing at the beginning of the year, which is the same time Johnny came along," Moriarty said. "I thought-"

"You thought that maybe something had changed over the summer," Adler finished for him. "Well, yeah. Something has changed over the summer. And not a single one of us is going to be left without scars from it."

"Well, well, well, who's being all dark and scary this year?"

"Shut it, Moriarty," Adler replied, rolling her eyes. She turned to Anthea in order to start a conversation with a fellow female - this way she wouldn't have to worry about the petty way that the T-Birds tended to speak.

"What are you all doing around here?" a voice snapped, interrupting the conversations immediately. "This is a hallway, not a stage for your performances!"

"Oh, give it a break, Mycroft," Shezza said, turning around to face his older brother. No, he'd never been able to get used to how his older brother worked in the school. Not only that, but Mycroft practically ran Rydell by himself. He always denied this whenever asked, but Shezza was absolutely sure of it.

"Sherlock," Mycroft replied sternly. "I think it best that you listen to me. I know how much you hate to do that, but it's the only option."

By this point, all of the T-Birds and Pink Ladies had fallen silent in order to find out precisely what was happening between Shezza and his brother. They couldn't help but soak in the drama - it was just too good to ignore. But at the same time, they were also somewhat fearful of what Mycroft could do to them if they ended up saying anything out of turn.

"I don't think so," Shezza said. "I don't have to do anything you tell me. Just because you work here doesn't mean you're the boss of me."

"I have more power over you than you choose to acknowledge," Mycroft said. "And that means all of you."

Everyone stood their ground simply because it was what Shezza was doing, and no one wanted to seem cowardly for walking away. But when Mycroft reached over to Shezza and grabbed his ear, everyone started to move once again. Now pulling along his younger brother by the ear, Mycroft walked down the hallway with a perfectly straightened back.

Now everyone was heading off to class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "Those Magic Changes" from the musical and performed by Sha Na Na in the film.


	4. More Than Words Can Say

The Pink Ladies liked to pretend that they had annual sleepover parties for the beginning of the year, even though this was very obviously not the case. Instead, rather, they just tended to have them sporadically. This first one of the school year, however, just happened to work itself out to be the first Friday of the week.

Molly had been able to work it all out with her parents, and now the entire gang was gathered at her house. She was very pleased to be able to gather so many of them in one place and make them all happy at once. There was absolutely nothing planned, mostly because she was aware that their was already an unspoken plan playing out over their head.

However, talking about Sarah's relationship with Johnny ended up being the first major event of the night, much to Sarah's displeasure. She wanted the thought of the two of them to just simply disappate from her mind, but people always kept on bringing word of him back. She'd much rather talk about her hair and her plans for the future - plans that most certainly would not be including Johnny.

"Sheesh, it sounds like you dated the biggest drag Rydell has ever seen!" Adler said. "I don't get why you were so broken up over him."

"Well, he was really nice-" Sarah began, but Adler almost immediately cut her off.

"Really nice," Adler repeated. "Too nice, I'd say. Nice until he ended up breaking your heart."

"And he didn't break my heart," Sarah pressed.

"I don't know, you look pretty broken right now," Adler replied with a shrug. "I just don't get it. He seemed so  _boring._  So pure. Almost like he was some guy version of Sandra Dee!"

"Johnny Dee?" Anthea asked, letting out a short laugh. "Is that what you're trying to say?"

"Yeah, exactly! I bet he won't drink or swear," Adler said. "He'd probably get sick just being in the same room with us right now. We're far too dirty for the likes of him."

"Can we not fight?" Molly asked, but she was laughing slightly through her warning. "We've got lots of time left in the night."

"Okay. Fine, fine, Molly, we'll move on. Come on. Let's get the real party started - guess what I brought?"

"Did you bring enough to go around this time?" Anthea asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Of course," Adler replied, rolling her eyes. She reached over to her bag and pulled out a bottle of wine, causing a cheer to break out among the other girls. Immediately, she knew she had control over them through this, and that pleased her. Molly grabbed it from her hands and started to read what the label said.

"Wow," she exclaimed. "It's imported! Can you believe it?"

"Only the best for the Pink Ladies," Adler said.

"Let me see," Anthea said, reaching out for it. "Are you sure it's imported? I think they just put that on there to make it look fancy."

"Oh, can you only take your imported wine?" Adler said. "Sorry, Queen Anthea!"

"I'm sure it's a great wine," Sarah called out over their rising voices, grabbing the bottle right from Anthea's hands. She wanted to see this for herself - everything seemed to end up in conflict whenever it came down to the Pink Ladies.

"Now, who's got the cigarettes?" Adler asked. "I gotta have some sort of payment for bringing it out."

"I don't have any cigarettes with me, but I do have some Twinkies."

"Twinkies, Molly," Anthea said. "Really? Wine and Twinkies - real classy!"

"Well, it says right there that it's a dessert wine," Molly said, widening her eyes as she pointed down to the label between Sarah's fingers.

"I've got some cigarettes," Sarah said, fighting back a sigh. Simply, she saw no need to perpetuate any sort of fight. It was just silly at the end of the day. Everyone seemed to fight over everything, and she just wasn't in the mood for it. She pulled out a pack and handed one over to Adler.

"Sarah gets the first gulp!" Adler announced as she took the cigarettes into her hands.

"It's my house," Molly said, pouting slightly.

"And it's my cigarettes," Sarah replied. She took the wine from Adler, quickly making her way into it before anyone else could snag it from her. It wasn't long before the bottle of wine had been passed around the entire group, and just about everyone had a cigarette placed in their hands.

"Now that we're all calm, I think it's time for me to say something important," Anthea said. "Well, actually, I want to show you something important..." From her back pocket, she pulled out a packet of papers.

"What are those?" Molly asked.

"Cheat sheets, courtesy of my boyfriend," Anthea said, smirking slightly. "I asked him if I could use them to study, but...you know."

"You're going steady with a teacher?" Molly asked, her mouth gaping open.

"Not any teacher," Anthea said, lifting her eyebrows. "I don't even know if you could call him a teacher. I think he's above all of that, really. Or at least, he makes himself out to be."

"Oh, my God," Adler replied with a snicker. "You're going steady with Mycroft Holmes, aren't you?"

"Maybe," Anthea said, shrugging slightly. But she couldn't prevent her lips from curling into a sly smile. "Okay, yes. I am going steady with Mycroft Holmes."

Sarah shook her head slightly, saying, "Sherlock's older brother, and the ruler of the school. He's gotten all of us in trouble at least twenty times. I mean, really!"

"And don't forget how old he is," Molly noted, popping another bright pink bubble of gum. "Anthea, he's so old!"

"Oh, come on, he's not that old," Anthea said with a roll of her eyes. "He's only a few years older than Shezza."

"But he's still out of high school," Sarah said. "That's kind of strange, Anthea. You have to admit it."

"There's more to a person than just their age," Anthea retaliated. She was willing to fight for what she believed in - even though these sorts of relationships always seemed to end fairly quickly for her. "And there's more to him than what you see."

"I'm just worried about how much more of him you have seen," Adler replied, giving a slight shrug.

"Shut up, Adler," Anthea said, rolling her eyes.

"So what exactly is he like, then?" Sarah asked. "You're so sure that he's better than we're making him out to be, so give us some proof."

"Okay...oh, I know exactly what to do!" She pulled an envelope out from her sleepover gear to show to the others. "Here - let me tell you about the letter I wrote to him."

"You wrote him a letter?" Adler asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, of course I wrote him a letter!" Anthea scoffed. "What else was I supposed to do? Skip class to go see him? Call him? He always says he doesn't have time for that sort of thing, so I listen to him. The last thing I want to do is upset him."

"What does it say?" Molly prompted.

"Yeah, what does it say?" Adler pressed. She wanted to know just as much as everyone else, even though she attempted to be more low key with her interest.

"Give me a second," Anthea said tantalizingly. "You can't rush me into explaining this! Come on. Just take a breath and then I can tell you what it says in the letter." She knew precisely how she was leading them on, making them feel desperate to know what she'd written. Part of her just didn't want to share the information, but she knew she'd just have to give it up now that she'd mentioned it.

After clearing her throat, she shook out the paper and began to speak.

"Myc, my love, I miss you more than words can say," read Anthea.

"Hold up," Molly said, reaching out a hand as if to literally stop Anthea in her tracks. "You call him Myc? Like Mike, but...Myc?"

"Yes, I call him Myc," Anthea said. "He likes it when it comes from me. If anyone else said it, well, it wouldn't end too well. Anyways, let me continue." She cleared her throat and started reading once again.

"I hope you keep in touch with me, even though I know you're busy. I mean, hearing from you can make every day feel so much better! Sometimes I get gifts, sometimes I get letters...either way, it works out wonderfully for me. I think this relationship is really going to work out!"

Adler rested her chin on her hand, leaning forwards as she listened to what Anthea had to say. Even if she were more amused by how silly the situation was than anything else, she was certainly enjoying listening to her explaining about how this worked out. Of course, Adler wanted to know how all of this had begun and how it managed to get to this point. But that was something for later.

"I mean, I flipped over the grey cashmere sweater. I'd love to get something like that again. But you don't have to do anything if you don't want to."

"So that's where the sweater came from," Sarah murmured, mostly to herself. Now she was beginning to see the benefits Anthea was gaining from her relationship.

"Just think about it - it'll be the summer again, and you won't have any work, but you'll still have your paycheck. We can just throw out of that money around like confetti! You see, my love, I've got it all planned out. I know how much you like having good plans. It's a good plan to have a good plan, I think!"

Anthea paused before continuing, looking around to make sure all of the others were still watching her intently. Sure enough, she'd maintained their full attention for the entire time. This was all she could've possible asked for.

"Don't keep your letters from me - I'm thrilled to read every line! My reading and spelling might not be the best, but who cares? I mean, the gifts are always so nifty - that's the sort of thing that I just can't ignore."

Even though the letter wasn't complete, Anthea decided she'd shared enough information from that particular portion of it all. No, she had something slightly more important to share with them.

"And now, take a look at what he just gave me the last time he sent me a letter!" Anthea said excitedly. She pulled at the chain around her neck and then produced a ring hanging off the end. It immediately caught all of the light in the room, as well as all of the eyes.

"Oh my God," Sarah gasped, starting to crawl closer to her. "You're engaged!"

"Not engaged," Anthea sighed. "No, not engaged at all. It's just a little gift that just happens to be a ring. Look, it's not even diamond." She held the chain out further so that all the other girls could see it better. Despite it not being diamond, it was still a particularly bright gem that seemed to be worth a lot of money.

"Why's he spending so much dough on you?" Molly said, doing her best not to gape over at the ring. She was succeeding purely because she had gum in her mouth to chew.

"We've made a business arrangement," Anthea said.

"A business arrangement," Adler repeated dryly. To herself, she murmured, "Why are all the girls I know dating such drags?"

"Yes, Adler, a business arrangement," Anthea said. "Once I'm out of high school, he's going to give me a job. I'm going to be his personal assistant. We'll be married soon after that. It's going to happen, just you wait and see!"

"I don't know if I'll do any waiting, so I probably won't do any seeing either," said Adler.

"No, it'll happen," Anthea said. "I just have to make it through this last year of school first. That's the only hard part."

"Well, I'm not going to have to make it through this last year of school," Sarah began, seeing a moment where she could finally break through and explain what was going on her life.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Molly said, shaking her head. "What exactly are you trying to say there, Sarah?"

"Don't worry, it's not anything bad," Sarah reassured. "In fact, it is probably one of the better things to happen to me."

"Then why don't you just go ahead and tell us?" Adler asked, getting somewhat frustrated by how the girl jumped around the subject.

"I'm going to beauty school later this year," Sarah said, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "I've been thinking about for a little while now, and once Johnny and I broke up it just made things a lot clearer in terms of showing me what I want to do. I won't have to deal with all the stupid teachers at Rydell anymore."

"Then I think you made a great choice," Molly said, beaming. "I'm jealous of you now!"

"You won't be for too long," Adler sighed. "Just you wait."

But now that the girls had gotten out their main concerns for the night, all of their fatigue began to sit in. They all began to drift off, going to sleep very quickly. With wine coursing through their system, they just felt groggy and relaxed. Absolutely nothing was keeping them awake - at least, most of them didn't have a thing preventing them from going to sleep.

With everyone falling asleep, it became very easy for Adler to start shifting around and gathering her things. She'd never intended to stay the entire night anyways - she had arrangements of her own to attend to. No one seemed to notice that she was moving around. They were all fast asleep, just as she had been hoping.

Adler, as usual had plans of her own to deal with before she could worry about anyone else. She'd spent the majority of the night so far talking to her fellow Pink Ladies, sharing wine and wit along with them. But now, she had a plan, and she wasn't about to be late to an arrangement she'd made simply because she was stuck inside of Molly Hooper's house.

First things first - she'd have to escape the house in order to actually accomplish anything of importance. She couldn't go out the front door, so there was really only one other way she could get out. Luckily enough, the window was already partially cracked open as if it'd been prepared for her.

Adler climbed out the window, hoping that Molly's parents wouldn't end up hearing her. But, then again, they didn't seem to be bothered by the noise the girls had been making before. Why should this be any different? Besides, no one would try to stop her even if she was found out. No one would dare to do such a thing. She just had power over everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "Freddy, My Love" as heard in both versions of the musical.


	5. Go Greased Lightning

Adrenaline rushed through the veins of the T-Birds as they raced into the garage. Not only was this a place they could hang out, it was a place where they could hide out. After stealing from a parked car, they certainly needed a place to hide out and avoid getting caught for what they'd done.

"We shouldn't have stolen all of those hubcaps," Anderson said, biting his lip.

"What, do you think we're going to get caught by the cops or something?" Greg asked. "That's crazy. They don't do anything, really. The fuzz'll just have to leave us alone."

"Well, let's just hope that the idiot who decided to put platinum hubcaps on a hunk of junk doesn't catch up to us," Seb said. "I mean, really. They spend all that money on these beauties and then put 'em on a dirty old piece of crap? I don't think so."

"But someone did it," Shezza said. "They were probably thinking they'd be able to distract people from the condition of the car so that it'd look all fancy. But now we've put everything back in its place. And now we're going to get some cash from it."

A cheer went up among the T-Birds - none of them could resist the idea of easy money on top of the thrill of stealing from a car. As far as they could see, it was wins all around. The only downside was the possibility of getting caught and being punished - but they were confident they weren't going to get themselves caught.

"The real question is how'd he get a pair of cool dice like these?" Anderson asked, utterly transfixed by the red fluffy cubes.

"No one cares about a lousy pair of dice," Shezza said. "If these are the kind of hubcaps I think they are - and you know I'm never wrong - then we'll be able to sell 'em for a whole lot of money. No one would expect that they came off of something that just rolled out of a junkyard!"

"Um..." Greg said. "I think that something that just rolled out of a junkyard is rolling towards us!"

Sure enough, the car they'd robbed was coming right for them. The boys burst into a rousing round of cuss words as they realized that they were about to get caught. At least it wasn't the police - but it was still the person who they'd been stealing from. They didn't know who exactly they were up against, and that made it frightening.

"Hide!" Shezza hissed. But he knew that it was already too late - everyone was caught in the spotlights. Now all they could do was jump out of the way. The car pulled into the garage, honking all the way. The T-Birds looked up to see who they had to deal with and simultaneously let out a gasp.

"Moriarty?" they all said at once, sounding extremely surprised.

"No, Rick Brooks," he said, rolling his eyes as he pushed open the car door. "Yeah, of course it's me!"

Now that they knew they were decently safe, the T-Birds made their way around the car. Moriarty might hurt them, but at least he wouldn't be turning them into the police any time soon. In that respect, they didn't have to worry.

"Hey, Moriarty!" Anderson yelled out, thrusting out the dice he'd swiped so that everyone could see. At the moment, that was the main thing he found himself concerned with. "Where'd you get these cool dice?"

For once, there was absolute silence in the garage. A few turned to stare at Anderson, giving him strange looks. At first, he didn't understand what he'd done that was so wrong. He still hadn't figured it out by the time he lowered the dice back down to his side and said, "Alright. Alright."

"Moriarty," Greg said, crossing his arms as he poked his head through the front window. "What're you doing driving this trash heap around?"

At first, Moriarty didn't reply. He focused on getting himself out of the car, forcing all of the other T-Birds out of his way. He stood there with his hands spread out, presenting the car behind him.

"This," he announced, "is Greased Lightning."

All of the other T-Birds burst into a round of hysteric laughter. How could that old piece of crap ever be something like Greased Lightning? That is, all of them laughed over it except for Shezza. He was too busy caught within his own mind to listen to their guffaws.

"What's up with you, Shez?" Seb managed to push out between laughs. "You think this is a real draggin' wagon? Something wrong with your eyes?"

"No, no, just think about it," Shezza said. "This car could be systematic...automatic...hydromatic...why, it's Greased Lightning!"

Of course, anything that Shezza Holmes said immediately became law. Now all of the T-Birds were interesting in hearing what Moriarty had to say. He sent a short smile over to the leader of the T-Birds as a silent sort of thanks. They'd been through rough times, but in the end they always made it out alive.

"I mean, all we've really got to do is get some overhead lifters and four barrel quads," he began.

"Keep talking," Greg said, nodding his head. The picture was starting to form in his mind, now that Shezza had mentioned it. "What else are you going to get for it?"

"Fuel injection cutoffs and chrome plated rods - it'll match the hubcaps, yeah?" Moriarty said, reaching over to elbow Anderson slightly. This set the younger T-Bird off his guard for a moment, but he soon got over it and started listening again.

"I'll get the money," Seb volunteered. "Oh, God, I'll kill to get the money for this car!"

"Just think - with a four-speed on the floor, they'll be lining up to get in. I've got it all planned out, and we'll all be getting lots of it in Greased Lightning!" Moriarty called out, allowing another cheer to pop out among the T-Birds.

"We'll get some purple French taillights and thirty inch fins, oh yeah! Imagine a Palomino dashboard and duel muffler twins, with new pistons and plugs and shocks..."

"Oh, I'm imagining it," said Anderson, an enormous smile appearing on his lips.

"You know that I ain't bragging about all of this," Moriarty said. "This car is going to be a real pussy wagon!"

Now, this excited the T-Birds like nothing else. They were jumping into the air, leaping around as they imagined exactly how this car was going to work out. It was right out of their reach, and they were going to get it. Nothing was going to stop these greaser boys now.

"We'll be burning up the quarter mile, coasting right through the heat lap trial. This car is supreme - just think of what all the chicks'll do just to get into Greased Lightning!" Moriarty yelled. "They'll be on their knees!"

The image of a shiny car with all the bells and whistles had been firmly lodged into the minds of all of the T-Birds. Now it was really only a matter of making that image into a reality, something they all fully intended to do. All of them ended up pitching in to create this new car, to make the dream into something real.

The boys rushed around the garage, trying to see what they could do to improve the car. The hubcaps were placed back on the wheels to begin with, but instead of looking completely out of place against the dirty car they seemed like the start to making an incredible car.

They chanted the car's name over and over again, making tiny fixes here and there. For a bunch of boys who supposedly had no work ethic, they were able to get quite a bit done in their excitement fueled moments. It looked almost like a new car when they were done.

But this energy was just too mad to last for very long - they ended up quieting down within a matter of seconds. Still, there was a massive buzz surrounding them. It was just a matter of allowing it to explode again. For a few moments, it was almost silent except for their heavy breathing.

"Well, well, well," Shezza said, crossing his arms. "Now that looks like a real draggin' wagon."

A woop of agreement erupted from the T-Birds. In their eyes, the car was now perfect. They'd been able to manufacture their dream image in what felt like absolutely no time. Now they'd be able to gather up the chicks in absolute hoardes. After all, that's what ended up motivating them to begin making up this car to begin with.

"How 'bout you head in, Moriarty?" Seb suggested. "Your car. You should drive it. Then you should let me take it out for a spin."

"In your dreams, Seb," Moriarty said, but he did take the suggestion of going into the car. He immediately hopped right into the driver's seat and started honking the horn and flashing the lights. He just wanted to be sure that everyone kept their attention on that car, no matter how.

But just as if he'd jinxed it, this attention was almost immediately taken right away from him. Pretty soon a sound of footsteps ended up causing all of the T-Birds to look away from the car and to see who was coming. After all, it might actually be the police...except, of course, it wasn't actually the police.

Strutting into the room was none other than Irene Adler, a hand on each of her hips as she walked along. Only Moriarty didn't seem surprised to see her popping up. If anything, he was annoyed by it. Both of them wore frowns as they looked at one another. But then again, that wasn't anything new for them.

The immediate tension in the room caused everyone to become absolutely silent. For once, none of them moved even an inch. Even the slightest budge felt like it might end up causing the room to explode, like it was just an enormous spark in a room full of gas.

"Adler, took you long enough!" Moriarty called out from the driver's seat.

"I was held up, okay?" she replied, rolling her eyes as she stepped forwards. "I was at the Pink Ladies' sleepover. And I needed to wait for them to go to sleep. I'm here now, and that's what's important."

"So then we can just get on with this," he said, giving a slight smile in her direction. All of the other T-Birds had fallen silent as soon as Adler entered the room. They hadn't expected her to show up, but now that she was there they all believed they knew exactly what was going on.

But they didn't have a clue.

"What the hell is that piece of junk?" she asked, her heels making clicks against the ground as she approached him.

"This," Moriarty said, pride flooding his voice as he leaned out the window, "is Greased Lightning."

"Greased Lightning," she repeated, crossing her eyes. "Of course you'd name it something like Greased Lightning. You really think you're going to pick up chicks with this thing?"

"Well," Greg said, deciding to make his way into the coversation. "He's already picked up one."

"Well," Adler repeated, starting to mock Greg. "I wasn't picked up by this car. I came here myself."

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of sirens.

"Oh, we gotta get out of here!" Moriarty said. "Get rid of the hubcaps!"

"What?" Seb said, immediately flustered. "I thought you bought those hubcaps."

"I stole 'em," Moriarty admitted. "I would've stole the car too, but I think it's pretty clear that it's a hell of a lot better if we have it like this."

"You stole the hubcaps?" Anderson said, somewhat weakly. "You stole them?"

"That's what he said," Seb said, shrugging slightly. The real issue of the situation escaped him, but it was beginning to connect in everyone else's head. Immediately, they launced into action.

They all began to pile into the car, but Adler immediately started pushing them out. She perched herself on top of the back of the car, allowing her legs to hang off the edge. She'd done this time and time again and never got bored of the thrill it offered. This left her hands open so that she could push them away.

"What, do you think that is a gang bang or something?" Adler said, a disgusted look on her face. She wasn't into these boys. That was simply not how it worked out for her, and apparently people didn't seem to understand this. Luckily, they ended up getting the idea and getting away from her. But then she reached out and grabbed Shezza's wrist.

"Hey, Shez. I need to talk to you for a second."

"Come on, Adler, the fuzz are coming!" he said, sounding strangely calm for this risk.

"Not yet. Tell me about that Johnny boy of yours," Adler asked, crossing her high heeled feet at the ankles.

"He's not  _my_  Johnny boy," Shezza said, rolling his eyes. But this flustered him unlike anything else - for once, he wasn't paying attention to the details and figuring anything out. He ended up missing the vital observation that Adler knew. She knew about Johnny, and she knew that he knew Johnny.

"But you're hiding something," Adler said. "Come on, just admit something. Anything."

"I don't need to tell you anything."

"Ah, well. I was just wondering how managed to get yourself wrapped up with the biggest square to ever step on Rydell's floor."

"Don't talk about him like that," Shezza grumbled, letting Adler know that she'd broken through to him.

"Adler, what's keeping you?" Moriarty called back, deciding that it was time for him to pry into the situation. "We've got things to do."

"Just give me a minute, Moriarty!" she responded, shaking her head. She needed to talk with Shezza - she needed to get across the idea of what was going on. She wasn't the sort to state things outright, and would rather just say whatever came to her mind. It would only take her a few more seconds, she was sure of it. If no one else could, she could get Shezza to really think. Not just observe. Think.

"You know exactly what I'm trying to say here. So just think for a moment about Johnny," she said. "Because I have been. You can deny it for as much as you might want, but it's not going to disappear into thin air. I know what's going on. You can't hide it from me."

"You want me to just think," Shezza replied. "That's all you want me to do."

"No," she said, shrugging slightly. "I want you to talk to him. I mean, really, Shezza. I know you better than you think I do. I've got you beat, Shezza Holmes. Remember that I've got you beat."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is, of course, "Greased Lightnin'" from all versions of Grease.


	6. The Glory of Rydell

The distant sound of cheerleaders ended up allowing Johnny to continue jogging along, despite the sticky sweat that prickled at the back of his neck and top of his head. It was still technically summer, at least according to the weather, and that meant nearly unbearable heat.

But one cheer continued to get louder and louder until it was just a single voice coming towards Johnny. He looked up to see Kitty Riley chanting her way across the field, making her way right to him.

" _Hit 'em again, Rydell Ringtails!_

_Tear 'em apart, green and brown!_

_Smash their brains out_

_Stop 'em on the floor_

_For the glory of Rydell ever more!_ "

Once she'd reached Johnny, she readjusted her stance and then decided to give a hello.

"Hi, Johnny! It's nice to see you again around here!"

"Aren't you supposed to be working on your cheers?" Johnny asked, creasing his eyebrows slightly.

"Of course," Kitty replied, shrugging slightly.

There was a brief pause as Johnny attempted to think through why she was over here, talking to him, when she was supposed to be cheering. He very nearly opened his mouth to say something, but then decided against it.

"You're probably wondering why I decided to come over to you, especially in the middle of cheer practice," she said, seemingly reading Johnny's mind.

"Well, yeah, actually..."

"I want to get an interview with you for the school paper! I'm the editor too, you know, but they still reply on me to get the good reports! And I'm starting with you. So tell me...what do you want to do when you grow up?"

"I've been thinking I'm going to go into the army once I get out of school," Johnny admitted, although he was still somewhat perplexed as to why she'd chosen this particular moment to come bounding over. "No one really saw me as a soldier, but I think I can do it just fine."

"Oh, wonderful," cooed Kitty. "I've never met someone who wanted to be the army. It'll be just swell, really. I mean, it's dangerous and all, but there's a lot more to it too!"

Johnny nodded a few times, starting to lose interest in the interview (and general coversation) already. He wanted to speak about his ambitions to someone he trusted and knew a lot better than Kitty Riley. And he didn't want them to be plastered all over some school newspaper (even though he'd never heard of it until this point).

"Well...I don't really have any more questions," Kitty said.

"Looks like you didn't really think this through very thoroughly, did you?" Johnny said under his breath, hoping that despite how close Kitty stood next to him she'd go without hearing his little comment.

Now the two of them stood in absolute silence. As if she just wanted to make some sort of noise, Kitty started swishing around her pom poms and hummed a cheer under her breath. She then started walking away, back in the direction of the other cheerleaders.

But just as Johnny thought he was going to be left completely alone, he found that there were footsteps headed in his direction. He started looking around, trying to figure out who it was - and then his eyes set on the last person he'd expected to see.

"Oh, hello Sher...Shezza," Johnny said, casting his gaze down to the ground. "It's good to see you again."

"Johnny, hey," he said. "I've been looking around for you for a while. Good to see I finally found you again."

"Really?" Johnny asked, starting to lift his gaze. "You've been...looking for me?"

"That's what I just said, isn't it?" Shezza replied. He was trying to seperate himself from the situation, but a very sincere smile ended up curling across his lips. Immediately Johnny knew that there was indeed emotion behind his motivation for coming along to speak to him.

This was precisely what he'd been waiting for - while he'd never known Sherlock for being particularly emotional, the boy tended to be truthful when it did come to emotions. Other things were not quite as truthful...but Johnny knew that sometimes lies were necessary. As long as the important things were true, he didn't really mind.

"Well, thank you for looking me," Johnny said. He was really just trying to prompt Shezza into getting into the important part of what he needed to say, and it seemed to be working. He'd just inhaled a big breath, preparing himself to speak.

But just as Johnny thought that this conversation might end up being productive, the sound of Kitty Riley approaching at absolutely breakneck speeds ended up breaking the moment within a few seconds. That was all it took to shatter it all.

"Shezza!" Kitty said, her voice automatically rising up into a squeal. She ran towards him at top speed, holding her arms open. The moment they collided, she ended up embracing him. He automatically froze at being hugged. As soon as his eyes met Johnny's, he began to blush.

"Oh, uh, hey Kitty," he said. He didn't want Johnny seeing him in anything vaguely romantic after everything the two of them had been through. And he certainly didn't want it to have anything to do with Kitty Riley, who was practically the bane of his existence. Yet somehow she always managed to find a way to latch onto him.

"It's so great to see you again," she said, practically beaming as she started to bury her head into Shezza's shoulder. At this point, he needed to do something - so he took her and gently pried her off. She seemed to be unfazed by this new development, strangely enough. Just moments later, she started speaking once again.

"I've been wanting to interview you again after you came over to my house the other day! You know, my mom just said that you were cute! Can you believe that? Ah, he's such a catch," she cooed, looking over towards Johnny. Shezza was fairly sure he'd never felt so awkward in his entire life, and that was saying something.

Johnny was finally being acknowledged by both Shezza and Kitty, but it wasn't in a way that made him feel comfortable. All of the little details started to swirl around in his head and make him rather jittery - she'd mentioned Shezza being over her house. She'd mentioned that her mom thought he was cute. Shezza Holmes,  _cute._  Nothing about this was making him feel any better about the leader of the T-Birds, that much was for sure.

"Oh, what were you doing at her house?" Johnny asked. He placed a false smile on his face, trying to prevent anyone from deciphering exactly what he was thinking of inside. He didn't want to admit what he was thinking even to himself, so of course he wouldn't want to show anyone else about it.

"I was just helping her with chemistry homework," Shezza said - it was the truth, and he saw no reason to lie.

"Yes, yes,  _chemistry,_ " Kitty said, her voice nearly turning into a purr. "Thanks for that again, Shez."

"Don't call me Sh-" he began, but then he caught himself when he noticed Johnny standing in the corner. "Yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Don't worry about it."

"I mean, it was  _such_  a big help," Kitty continued. It appeared that she could easily start talking for hours on end despite the fact that she was supposed to be the one who interviewed other people. Shezza and Johnny stayed silent for a few minutes as she blabbed on. "I don't think I'd be able to get through this year without his help!"

"You're a straight B student," Shezza grumbled.

"I need to be a straight A student, and that's why I need you!" Kitty said. She looked as if she was going to launch herself towards him again for another hug. Shezza braced himself for the impact, but then it turned out that something else had distracted her.

"Oh, would you look at that?" she said. "Looks like I need to get to the top of the pyramid. Well, see the two of you later!" She started to skip off before she realized she'd forgotten to mention something important.

"Wait, wait, wait! Since you were over here, Shezza, if you want to be a part of the Rydell Ringtails, you can try-out for the track team. They'll be doing try outs on Thursday. See you there?"

"Yeah, yeah," Shezza replied, only half paying attention. Now that Kitty was getting out of his way, he was already trying to concentrate more on what was happening with Johnny, and nothing else really mattered. "I'll be there."

"Can't wait to see you in the track team, then," she said, giving another enormous smile. Now that her deeds were done, she was free to simply skip away and go on about her life.

Johnny and Shezza felt like they could release an enormous breath, but the tension grew again once they realized they were alone. It was the first time they'd truly been alone since the summer they'd shared. While Shezza felt somewhat pleased about this development, Johnny only felt more uncomfortable. He'd been given the cold shoulder his entire time at Rydell so far - what had changed now?

"Chemistry, yeah?" Johnny said, unable to keep his eyes off of the ground. "Interesting subject for you to be interested in, although I shouldn't be all that surprised..."

"It's my best," Shezza said. "All the teachers hate me for my attitude, but they love me for my brains."

"Somehow, I'm really not surprised," Johnny replied, finding the moment dissolving into silence. This had always been coming, of course, but it still felt extremely awkward now that it was happening again.

Johnny found that he was blaming the stillness and lack of sound on himself - he couldn't help it. While some things were certainly due to Shezza's presence, it seemed to be that he was the one leading the conversation straight to a stop.

But at the same time, he didn't understand why. He didn't understand why everything always had to be his fault. He wanted to speak to Shezza, he really did, but the words just wouldn't come out. He was too afraid of what the reaction might be.

"Listen, Johnny," Shezza began. "I'm sorry about the first day."

"You should be," Johnny replied, heaving out a sigh. "I don't know what happened, but you were like an entirely different person. I don't know where Sherlock from the summer went..."

"He didn't go anywhere," Shezza said. He found himself softening when it came to speaking to Johnny - he couldn't help but lose his trademark enigma. There was just something about him that was  _different._ Even he couldn't quite place it, but there was certainly something extraordinary about Johnny. Perhaps that was what drew them together in the first place.

But while Shezza started to soften and grow more comfortable, Johnny felt himself starting to become more tense. He couldn't deny the fact that he was very upset about Shezza's change. It was just a matter of how much he wanted Shezza to know about and how much he wanted to keep to himself. But he knew at the very least he'd be better off using his words.

"I just don't understand why you felt the need to change so much. I mean, I get that we can't just go around telling people about us. They wouldn't understand, they would talk - and not in a good way," Johnny said, sighing slightly.

"That  _is_  a problem, isn't it?" Shezza replied, now letting out a sigh to mirror Johnny's. "It's stupid, all these people scared because one type love is different. I mean, really. Ordinary people just don't understand."

"So we're not ordinary, then," Johnny said. He meant it as a question, but he ended up finding that he already had the answer. Of course they weren't ordinary - there were at least a thousand ways he could pick off the top of his head that showed how they weren't ordinary.

"Ordinary? Nah, I don't think so. Not that it's a bad thing, either," Shezza replied, laughing softly.

"Well...I guess you're changing again, since you're trying out for the track team," said Johnny.

"What?"

"You told Kitty that you were going to be at the try outs," he replied.

"Did I?"

"Yes."

"I don't remember-"

"You were distracted," Johnny finished. "But you should do it."

"Why the hell would I want to be surrounded by a whole bunch of brainless jocks?" Shezza replied with a smirk.

"Because I'm one of those brainless jocks," sighed Johnny. "That's why I'm here, I'm already set to be on the track team. I'm just trying to practice."

Shezza inhaled a large breath, starting to think about how he could work this out. Certainly there was some way to make everyone happy.

"We'll see," Shezza replied. "We'll see. I might come, might not."

"Might not?" Johnny asked. "Well, I think you should do it. It's worth giving a try, isn't it?"

"I...I dunno."

" _You_  don't know."

"No," Shezza said, "I don't know. I don't know what the other T-Birds would think of me. It wouldn't be good, I can tell you that much."

"Come on," Johnny replied. "Do it for me. Forget about what the other T-Birds would think. Show me that you haven't forgotten about the summer."

"Fine, I'll do it," he grumbled. "But only for you. Not for Kitty or anyone else. Just for you."

"Thank you," Johnny said softly.

Shezza reached over and was about to kiss Johnny when a doubt came into his head. He wanted to make this work out, he really did, but he wasn't sure how he could do that yet. After years of being able to figure out just about anything from deductions, he was now at a loss. No. This wouldn't work.

"Sherlock," Johnny said softly. "What is it?"

"We can't," he said.

"Why?" Johnny replied. "Because people might talk?"

"They might do worse than talk," Shezza sighed. "And I don't think we can go through all of that."

Without even so much as a goodbye, he turned and walked away from Johnny. He was now completely alone, standing in the field trying to feel like he was supposed to be there. He should've known this was how it would turn out.

Shezza most certainly had changed - whether it was that he'd changed from his normal self during the summer or that he was just putting up a facade when it came to school and the T-Birds, that was up for debate. Yes, he'd agreed to do something just for Johnny, but there were still plenty of things that were just off.

Johnny realized that he was just standing there in the middle of the field, completely alone. How pitiful. After everything, he was just left alone without anyone to turn to or rely on. Somehow, this had always been coming for him. He just didn't want to confirm it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is the Rydell Fight Song, found within the stage version of Grease.


	7. Nowhere to Hide

Johnny found himself absolutely alone - it was like everyone who had been wandering outside near the field had just dissipated into the air. He wasn't sure how to take this. Maybe something was going on that he had missed. As the new boy at the school, it wouldn't be the most surprising thing. But it still didn't make him feel any better about it.

He never made himself out to be a heavily popular person, nor did he want to be, but there was certainly more to it than that. Johnny still was human, at the end of the day, and that meant he needed to have some sort of interaction. The only thing he had left now were his own thoughts.

Somehow, it was like he'd never been lonelier in his life. This didn't seem right - he didn't have to strain his eyes in order to see that there were indeed where there were people around the area. He could still hear hints of the chants from the cheerleaders.

In other words, he most likely was nothing like the definition of truly being alone. Perhaps he was alone than he was lonely - that would make sense, at the very least. There were absolutely no friends in the area, nor anyone else he associated with. Anyone he might've been interested to speak to had left him behind.

Then, there were some people who he'd rather not speak to who had left him alone just the same - one specific name came to mind, and it was only amplified by the fact he could still hear the cheerleaders working on their routines again and again.

Kitty Riley.

Kitty had simply abandoned him after a few minutes, leaving him to his own devices. He was somewhat insulted by being rejected by her like that, but then again he didn't care for her all that much. While he never thought that having energy would be a bad thing, she seemed to use it for all the wrong reasons.

Her obsession with the newspaper along with Shezza simply made Johnny feel uncomfortable, as if he didn't have anything of use to say to her. The only real interest she had in him laid in the fact he was in the track team...even though he wasn't all that good at it. He tended to trip over hurdles and had never been the fastest of the group.

At the end of the day, Johnny was just trying to get into his way at Rydell, and perhaps track and field wasn't as good for him as he had been anticipating. Still, he didn't know what to do. He found himself standing in the middle of a large expanse of grass, without a single soul around him.

The only real option for him was to turn to his mind to thinking, something that he tended to avoid doing simply because it never ended well in the end. This was just about the epitome of those situations, now that he was descending back into it. The reasons he tried to avoid such a thing immediately popped up.

In all sincerity, it seemed to take less than a second before he'd lost his entire head to the thoughts he'd pushed away for so long. He should've known he'd always end up in the same place once again, but he couldn't help but hope it wouldn't turn out that way.

Kitty hadn't been the only one who'd come to speak to him, after all. He'd preferred the one who came second much more, even though it also brought up many things that were less than satisfactory for Johnny. There had been moments of hope within their conversations where he'd thought something might end up working out.

He tried to stop thinking about the words they'd exchanged. He tries so hard to just leave it behind him, start running along the track and leaving them behind at the start. But he just couldn't do such a thing.

Like a jack in the box being wound up, those thoughts had nearly disappeared for a good amount of time. But Johnny now ended up letting the jack in the box pop right back up - the thoughts he'd been pushing back all sprang right to the front and center. He'd brought himself into this, of course. That didn't mean he liked it any more.

Every word, breath, movement, anything - it could all potentially have meaning, and that much alone made Johnny's head start to spin. He wasn't made to analyze the details of someone's behavior. That just wasn't the way things worked out in his mind. But he still felt a need to try to figure it out, just to see if he'd gotten the right idea.

But still - he couldn't just let his mind run free with thoughts of it all. Part of Johnny still held himself back from being fully engulfed by it all. He decided he might as well give himself permission to do such a thing, to just allow his mind to go wild.

He started thinking about Shezza.

Shezza Holmes. The boy he thought he had gotten to know over the summer. Even if he was a bit of enigma at all times, he still thought he had understood him. They were always more than just simple friends, at least that much should have been clear. But then...no. Johnny came to Rydell and Shezza just ended up breaking his heart without even batting an eyelash.

It was like he had done it time and time before, like being a heart breaker was a regular thing for him. Maybe he wasn't used to breaking a guy's heart, that had been his first time for that. But then again, Johnny didn't care to think about how many girls' hearts he had broken in the past. It couldn't just be because of them both being guys, could it?

He had gotten in the whole relationship with Sarah, that much was true, but it wasn't long before the two of them had gone seperate ways. The fact of the matter was, Johnny's heart belonged to Shezza whether he liked it or not.

There was just no getting over him - he'd been through more than enough after they'd separated over the summer. Of course, he thought everything would be solved when they ended up going to the same school, but that had failed just as much.

Nevertheless, he couldn't let himself hate Shezza for anything that happened. There would always be a million excuses, a million reasons why Johnny would offer forgiveness yet again. He just wasn't capable of letting go of the bond he'd formed over the summer.

There were plenty of people he'd been able to get over and practically forget about. Johnny knew he was capable of it, but he wouldn't do it when it came to Shezza. In all sincerity, he didn't think it was even a possibility, no matter how much he'd been hurt. He wasn't capable of it.

Johnny raised a hand up to his eyes as he felt them beginning to mist up with tears. No, that was stupid. He wasn't going to cry over Shezza. He wasn't going to fall into that perfect little line of those people that had gotten their hearts broken by Shezza. Tears weren't necessary for the situation, he decided.

No. No, he wasn't going to cry. But at the same time, he knew there was so much more to it then just being heartbroken or just feeling like crying. It was about the fact that he could not and would not be able to get over Shezza. Johnny tried many times just to get him out of his mind - it didn't work.

Of course, there had to be a reason for this. Thoughts didn't normally stick to one's mind as if they were coated with a thick layer of glue. Johnny just needed to figure out precisely what it was that was making everything so difficult. Maybe all he needed was to do a few laps.

Johnny barely made it halfway around the track when he glanced down to his decelerating feet. He'd thought of a possible reason why Shezza stood out so much and covered up the rest of the thoughts meant to be skipping around Johnny's mind. It was almost certainly the correct reason, as well.

He didn't want to admit it to himself, because then he'd feel like he needed to admit it to someone else - but keeping it in wasn't going to prevent it from being harmful, either. It was the sort of thing that could be thrown around in the summer like a beach ball, something that would more or less fade away in the other months.

But now that he was in school, he couldn't deny what had seemed so light and airy back in those hotter months at the beach. It all started to come together in his mind, no matter anything he did to prevent it to. For once, he didn't want the answers. Nevertheless, they all ended up coming right back to his mind.

He couldn't prevent it from coming to his mind at this point.

Johnny Watson fell in love with Shezza Holmes during that summer, and those feelings only grew over time. It developed and matured, strengthening with each gaze and spare thought that could come to his mind. In a strange way, Johnny found himself addicted to it despite the fact that he claimed to himself that he didn't want to be that way.

His subconsious told him otherwise, and therefore he found himself unable to move any further in a different direction. Falling in love really did feel like falling - there was no way to stop until he finally went and hit the ground. And Johnny didn't want to think about what might happen if he were to hit the ground.

The falling felt exhilirating, and it was almost like flying at times. But when it wasn't, the boost of energy he felt seemed more like adrenaline from fear. It hurt him and made everything more and more difficult. He could barely make his way through each and every day when these sorts of things came along.

Those feelings made him absolutely hopeless - he was devoted to the leader of the T-Birds, no matter how badly he was treated by him. He could tell there was emotion and humanity hiding underneath all of those leather jackets and the way he acted around everyone. Shezza cared about him in return - but whether he loved him or not was something to be debated.

But of course, he'd gladly be a fool who's willing to wait for Shezza to come around for him. After all, he'd given a decent show of affection when he came around. If only it hadn't been for Kitty, ruining the whole moment, and then...

Was there something wrong with him for feeling this way? Or was there something wrong with Shezza for treating Johnny like this? He'd never felt so confused about anything in his life - but, then again, he'd never considered himself to be in love before.

Every time he allowed himself to admit the simple fact of being in love, he had to close his eyes and take a pause in his life. It was something shocking - everyone always talked about love, but actually realizing you'd be in it was something else entirely. Through all of the relationships Johnny had been through, none of them had felt a thing like this. And he knew it wasn't just because Shezza was male.

He trusted his own emotions well enough to think that somehow it all made sense, and it was almost certainly due to love. All of their experiences ended up forming into that one emotion everyone seemed to be going after.

Of course, Johnny realized it really wasn't any fault of his own. The majority of the problems had been caused by Shezza's behavior and unpredictable. He'd gone from sweet, to cold, to secretive, to caring, then right back to cold. It was almost like a cycle, but with just enough chance and human nature involved to make it difficult.

Johnny once thought that his relationship with Sarah had been causing some of the problems, but now that they were broken up it became perfectly clear Shezza didn't really care about it. If he cared at all.

The strangest thing about it all is how it all happened by a whole lot of chances. If it hadn't been for Stamford Beach, the two never would've met one another on the sand and then started to speak. They became friends quickly, and then it became clear there was more between them.

Of course, they couldn't exactly be loud about their relationship, but they decided against staying quiet. People would judge them no matter what, so Shezza and Johnny figured they'd be better off neither denying anything nor proclaiming it out to the world. They were partners, friends - and maybe even lovers, too. Johnny thought they were, and now he wasn't sure.

They'd taken a chance by getting together to begin with - but it just seemed to make sense during the summer. Perhaps it was just the heat and humidity going straight to their heads, or perhaps it was something more. Johnny, in most ways, convinced himself that the latter was the case. He'd never gotten any sort of confirmation of love from Shezza, but he could feel it.

This entire thing was hopelessly confusing, every answer given allowing for three more questions to pop up. Johnny thought that it might have something to do with the way Shezza always carried himself and presented his personality to others - he didn't want to be figured out. Rather, he wanted to figure out everything about everyone else.

And that was just another thing Johnny'd learned to love about the leader of the T-Birds. It was so stupid, so cliche, and yet...it felt perfect, in a strange sort of way.

With a slight smile now starting to grace his lips, Johnny now began to think about the lighter and brighter sides of this situation. He was in love. He'd finally admitted that little fact to himself, as well. After almost eighteen years of being alive, he'd learned to experience one of the most famous emotions in the entire world.

This wasn't to say that he believed love could solve everything - nothing could possibly be so simple. But it was certainly a start in the right direction, at least for Johnny. Now visualization a of a better future started to consume his mind - still involving Shezza, but no longer fully melancholy thoughts.

Maybe, just maybe, it would all work itself out, and Johnny wouldn't have to worry about Shezza or Kitty or Sarah or anyone else who might get involved. He could just be in love, and have someone who shared those feelings back. Johnny dreamed of those things, and he was devoted to getting them to come to life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is the always loved "Hopelessly Devoted To You" from the movie and revival versions of Grease - and it also lent one of its lyrics to create the title of this story!


	8. If You Would Call Me

As the schoolyear gradually started making its way into the crisp coolness of autumn, the weather started to even itself out. Instead of being absolutely sweltering and making your clothes stick to you with sweat, the breeze gently pressed against your skin and reinvigorated you. This, of course, meant it was prime time for a picnic.

The T-Birds and Pink Ladies worked together to take over a patch of grass in the park, all sitting on various benches and blankets. Their picnic feast was composed mostly of everything they'd bought from the nearby Burger Palace - not the most typical fare for this sort of event, but they didn't mind. It just wouldn't feel right without grease dripping off of their burgers and fries.

Over on one of the outer corners of the group was a blanket where Molly and Greg sat together. They'd been more or less stuck together - Moriarty and Adler had claimed one bench, Anthea and Sarah were sprawled across the other, and then all the others took the more central blankets.

Molly took an enormous bite of the burger - half of it was gone within a matter of seconds. Greg watched on with widening eyes, trying to figure out how this was possible. Math had never been his best subject, but he didn't think that it was possible for that much food to disappear into a girl of her size.

He couldn't focus on eating his own food because he was so distracted by Molly. One of the strangest parts of it all was the fact she seemed unable to get any stains on her clothing. Her yellow sweater stayed perfectly untouched despite of everything.

And all the while, she just kept on eating while Greg continued gawking. He just couldn't help himself - there was just too much strangeness surrounded the area and he couldn't walk away from it all. But he was forced to close his mouth when she turned around to face him.

"What're you staring for?" she asked with her mouth half full, her eyebrows creasing as she looked over towards Greg. "Do I look bad...or something?"

"No, it's just...I..." Greg couldn't find the words to explain precisely what was going on. All the while, Molly continued chewing until she finally had swallowed every last bit of the burger. At that point, she was capable of actually saying something coherent to him as well as expressing herself a bit better.

"What is it?" Molly asked. "I must've done something, oh..."

"No, you didn't do anything wrong," Greg reassured her. "I'm just kind of surprised that you can...eat so much."

"Oh," Molly squeaked. She felt like she should've seen this much coming, but she now that it was upon her she was almost shocked. "Well, yes...my mother likes to call me her bottomless pit. If there's anything in the house she has too much of, she comes to me. But that doesn't happen often."

Greg realized he'd opened up the possibility for a conversation. The only issue was that he didn't know what to say to her. Nothing seemed to make an ounce of sense when it popped into his mind. But at the same time, he felt a strong desire to saw something to her - he just wanted to listen to her and try to learn more about her.

Molly noticed this moment as well. She also seemed to be at the same capacity to figure out a conversation starter. She wanted Greg to start speaking - she'd never been the best at saying anything of much use when it came to beginning a conversation. But she could certainly contribute to what someone else had said.

She glanced at him one more time, wondering if he were about to say anything more to her. When he remained silent, she let out a sigh and then looked away. Molly shouldn't have expected anything more from him. Instead of listening or talking to Greg, she started back into her food again.

Greg soon followed suit, digging into his own food. The two of them sat in near silence, the only sound being their breathing and the sound of them eating - certainly not anything particularly friendly or conversation-sparking. They just seemed to be forced to go through this for the rest of the time - there wasn't much of a choice.

But then, as Greg brought up his soda to take a drink, they burst into speech once again.

"No, no, no, you shouldn't drink that Coke!" she exclaimed.

"What, so you can shove a whole burger in your mouth but I can't drink a sip of Coke?"

Molly pursed her lips and started straightening out her back. She normally didn't feel ashamed of her eating habits, but something about the way Greg had said it bothered her. She would just have to prove him wrong about the whole Coke thing, and then she'd end up on top.

"You know, it rots your teeth."

"What?" he asked. "How'd you find that one out?"

"Well, I read that one time, someone knocked out their tooth into a glass of Coke and then let it sit there for a week, and the whole thing dissolved! All of it rotted away because of the Coke!"

"I'm not going to be running around with a mouthful of Coke, am I?" Greg asked, crossing his arms.

"Well, no, but-"

"Then I don't have to worry about it," Greg said, tipping the bottle up so that he could sip some more of the soda. Once again, they'd hit a stand-still in their conversation. Now that they'd quieted down once again, they could hear the others starting their own conversations, and one stuck out in particular.

"Shezza, what were you doing right after school today? I thought you were going to head straight to the Burger Palace to help get the food," Anthea asked, leaning out to look at him.

"Well, I was..." Shezza began. He hadn't been expecting anyone to call him out on this, so it caught him off guard.

"You were what?" Anthea asked. She wasn't trying to pry as much as she just felt interested to know what was going on.

"I was trying out for the track team. Yeah," he admitted.

A snicker rose up among the entire group, prompting Greg to jump up and mock him. He felt that this was his job, whether or not any of the others agreed with him on this matter. This was just too much to simply ignore - Shezza, the leader of the T-Birds and the very image of a greaser, trying out for a sports team? It was ridiculous on so many levels.

"Yeah, like you could get on any track team with those chicken legs!" he called out, a mischevious smile raising the edges of his lips up.

"You should know that I did get in, so you can just sit down and shut your mouth, Rump!" Shezza called back.

"Why do they call you that?" Molly asked. "Rump. It doesn't sound like a very nice nickname. Why do you let them just call you that?"

"It's not a nickname as much as it's a title," Greg said. "Like a gift. A sign of me being the very best."

"Rump?" she asked in response, unsure of how this all came together.

"Yeah, Rump. I'm the Mooning King."

"Mooning King?" Molly repeated.

"The Mooning Champ of Rydell High! You know what mooning is, right?"

"Well, you mean, like..." Molly paused in order to recollect her thoughts. A slight flush started to come across her cheeks as she said, "Like showing your bare behind to people?"

"Exactly," Greg confirmed.

Molly broke out into a round of giggles - she just couldn't help herself. "Oh, that's so...that's so raunchy!"

"It's pretty fun. And it's also a good way to get attention," he said. "I mean, like I said - Mooning King of Rydell. That's not a title to look down on, now is it?"

"No, it's not," Molly forced out through a few giggles. "It's pretty...it's pretty impressive."

"Like once, I got the old Holmes man! Mycroft never saw it coming - and he didn't see my face, either! He has no clue it was me!"

At this point, Molly could barely breathe because she was laughing so hard at what Greg had told her. This also meant that every now and then, she ended up letting out a snort. She had no control of it, it just sort of came out. Her blush from before spread across her entire face until she'd turned a pretty shade of pink not unlike the gum she usually chewed.

"Oh, oh," she exclaimed as she finally started calming down from her laughing attack. "I just wish..."

"You just wish what?"

"I just wish I'd been there!" she admitted, deciding just to say it straight out. "I bet it was pretty great, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah it was," Greg said, prideful of the fact he'd gotten Molly's appreciation. "And yeah, I wish you'd been there too. I mean...well, you know what I mean."

This time their silence was prompted by their mutual embarrassment. Strangely enough, Greg didn't feel much of anything due to the fact he'd just told her about mooning - if anything, he considered that something to be proud of. Instead, they were realizing how their inner thoughts were coming out for the other to see in a less than perfect way.

Trying to figure out what to say next, Molly reached over to grab the french fry container. On the way she ended up bumping her hand into Greg's, causing their already flushed faces to turn just another shade pinker.

"So...mooning," she began, realizing instantly that this was a horrible conversation starter. Nevertheless, she ended up getting Greg to actually speak up for once.

"Yeah, mooning," he said. "Is there anything you want to know about it? After all, I am the expert."

Molly, unsure whether he meant this as a joke or not, stared at him rather blankly for a few moments. When she finally understood that he had been trying to make her laugh, she let out a small giggle and allowed her lips to curl up as her nose began to scrunch up as well.

"Can't you get in trouble for that?" Molly asked. "Like, actual, literal trouble?" While she waited for a response from him, she popped a fry into her mouth and started crunching away.

"You mean like the police?" he asked. She nodded a few times, sending her high ponytail bouncing up and down. "Yeah, I can get in trouble. But it's not like it matters."

"What?"

"I don't care about the police. They're just a bunch of drags. Nothing to worry about at the end of the day. Besides, you can usually outrun them, and really - I'm just mooning people. It's not the worst thing I could do."

Swallowing back another bite of the fries, she then said, "I just don't want to see you getting in trouble because of it."

"But it would be fun if you could tag along some time," Greg suggested, starting to divert the conversation.

"You really do want me to come along, then?" Molly asked, immediately falling under his spell. "I mean, I might end up messing something up. I'd hate to be responsible for anything."

"No, it'd be fun," Greg reassured. "And it'd be fun if the two of us were there together."

"Just the two of us?"

"Just the two of us," he confirmed. "Running around, causing mayhem...that is, if you'd like to do something like that. I know I would."

"It's sounds pretty fun, even if it is a little dangerous..." she said, fidgeting around to make herself a bit more comfortable. "And you're sure you'd want me to come along? Just me?"

"Wouldn't I have told you if I wanted someone hanging around with us? Nah, trust me - we'd be much better with just the two of us. I mean, I've always wanted to do something just with you."

"What?" Molly asked, nearly squeaking out the single word.

"You know, I spend my days just mooning over you," Greg admitted. "It's strange to admit, but I'm all sad and blue."

"Over...me?" Molly asked in response, scrunching up her nose in confusion.

"Yeah, over you! I've wanted to tell you for a while, but..."

"But what?"

"It's one of those kinds of things that are hard to say. You know what I mean, yeah?"

"Yeah," she replied, nodding vigorously. "Sometimes I open my mouth and talk for hours but I never actually  _say_  anything. Nothing important ever comes out."

"I've never heard anything not important come out of your mouth," Greg said, fumbling his way to flirt with her while making sure she felt comfortable at the moment. She always looked just on edge, as if she could be catapulted into a bad situation at the drop of a pin.

"Oh..." she said, trying to reach out and grab another fry to keep her busy. "Thank you for that."

"I mean, I'd love to talk to you some more," he said, snatching a fry of his own as if to reflect what she was doing.

"Well, all you really have to do is call me," Molly replied, shrugging up her shoulders.

"I haven't got your phone number."

"Then I need to give it to you right now!" she realized. She rushed around the group of picnicers, searching for someone who had a piece of paper and a pen. Luckily enough, she was able to collect everything and then scribble down her number.

"Thank you," Greg said when he took it from her.

"Oh, it's not a problem," she said, giving a slight shrug.

"So, you're not up to anything this weekend, are you?"

"Nothing except for the dance."

"Think you might want to go to the dance with me?" he asked, raising his lips up.

Despite their whole moment of being more open with their feelings around one another, she ended up reacting very surprised at this question. But instead of shock, she ended up looking positively gleeful. The blush from before still made her face look red, but now her happiness radiated through, making it look as if she were glowing.

"I would love to," she exclaimed. Without thinking, she ended up reaching forwards and throwing her arms around him. Just seconds later, he ended up returning her embrace. For a few moments they stayed frozen in this position. When they broke apart and let reality come back to them, they ended up going straight back to their more awkward mood.

"We'd go to dinner before, right?" she asked, her voice now far quieter.

"Well, yeah. Nothing fancy, just the Burger Palace...unless you wanted to go somewhere fancier."

"No, no, I'm relieved you said that!" Molly replied.

"What?" Greg asked.

"Well, I hate it when guys try to win you over with fancy food. What's so wrong with a burger and fries?" There was a pause before Greg gave his reply - although it was mostly just an observation.

"This is going to be great."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "Mooning" from the stage version of Grease.


	9. Not Brought Up That Way

Shezza shuffled around where he was sitting, not wanting to admit to the fact that he felt nervous - he'd invited Johnny to this picnic, but he hadn't shown up. He was thinking that maybe, just maybe, they'd be able to work things out. He didn't want everything they'd built during the summer to end up collapsing into a big pile of rubble.

They'd have to play off their relationship as if they were budding friends more than anything else. People would be curious as to why they were spending so much time together, after all. But a little bit of talking couldn't hurt them, could it? Shezza tried not to worry about it too much - he needed to actually have Johnny beside him before he could properly think about their interactions.

He took a quick glance around the rest of the group, seeing that literally everyone else had shown up to their picnic. It seemed like Molly and Greg had gotten significantly closer, at the very least - the two were now deep in conversation, enveloped in whatever the other had to say. As they listened, they would eat a fry or two, making a cycle of eating, talking, and listening.

Shezza then noticed that Moriarty and Adler were sitting beside one another on a bench. Moriarty's arm loosely hung around the back of the bench, as if he were close to putting it around her shoulders but wasn't quite sure he could do that sort of thing yet.

In other words, the only thing Shezza could see around him were relationships starting to work out. It bothered him mostly because he knew he couldn't exactly have the same sort of thing - and if he did, it couldn't be perfectly public.

And, of course, Johnny would need to show up first for anything to happen.

In a fit of desperation, Shezza laid back on his picnic blanket and started concocting possible plans for figuring out ways he could get Johnny away from the group so that they could be alone without attracting too much attention. Part of his mind continued to say that he didn't even have Johnny near him, but he decided to ignore it for the moment. He just wanted to imagine something good.

He forced himself to sit up after a few minutes when he noticed that Adler began to get up off the bench. Shezza wanted to know precisely what she was up to - after all, that girl was always up to something. No one always had something to do the way that she always had something to do. It was kind of maddening to figure her out, but if anyone was capable of it, it would be Shezza Holmes.

"Well, well, well, it looks like  _someone_  is missing," Adler announced to the group, starting to walk to the center of the grass patch so that everyone had a good view of her. "And I don't think I need to spell out who."

"Adler," Shezza hissed, trying to keep his voice down. "What are you doing?"

"Just wait and see," she said back, keeping her voice low in a similar manner. "You boys are so impatient most of the time, and I don't get it. I mean, really." She rolled her eyes before continuing to strut to the center of the group. She needed to make sure she was in a spot where everyone could see, otherwise putting on a show was absolutely worthless.

"Well, it's clear to see that Johnny Watson isn't here with us at the picnic," Adler said. "And the funny thing is, I could've sworn that he was invited along. Or maybe that's just me. I don't always have my information correct. Just most of the time."

At the mention of Johnny's name, Shezza found himself freezing up. He should've seen this coming, most likely, but now it felt like it was being launched upon him out of nowhere. The sickly sweet smile plastered across Adler's face only made the entire situation feel worse. She was about to do something to bring someone else down, and that person would be Johnny.

Still, Shezza remained still, pretending that nothing was wrong. To everyone else, he had no reason to worry as Adler continued.

"Oh, the girls already know this, but I suppose it's about time for me to share it with the rest of you."

"What're you going on about, Adler?" Moriarty asked, looking quite entertained by her new actions. Then, of course, there was also the fact that Shezza looked unbelievably uncomfortable by the whole situation. This just wasn't like him, and that made it seem awfully interesting.

"Well, if you could just wait then you'd see," Adler hissed in response, but she did give somewhat of a smile over in his direction. "I'm just about to tell you."

Straightening out her back, she made sure she was in prime condition to be stared at. As a matter of fact, Adler was always in prime condition to be stared at - today she just felt it was somewhat necessary that she was more so in this than usual. With her black heels and form fitting clothing, she only needed to make a few minor adjustments and she was fine.

Now satisfied with her appearance, she continued with her speech, raising her voice even louder at this point. "We all know that Johnny Watson is like the male version of Sandra Dee - and if you don't, just let that sink in for a moment."

She paused in order to give them a few moments of thought and then promptly continued with her explanation. Adler was very pleased to find out that absolutely everyone was focused in on her - she'd managed to gain all of their attention, and even for her that was a difficult task.

"I'll bet that he never drinks, or smokes, or curses. No, he's all above that, the absolute purest to be found at Rydell! He wouldn't even dare to think of something even remotely dirty."

As she made a melodramatic flourish, she was able to draw several laughs from the crowd around her. But Adler craved much more, and she was going to get it one way or another.

"And that's why he's not here today, of course. He doesn't want to be around us, such horrible, disgusting people! No, he wishes he were at St. Bartholomew's where everyone is pure! After all, that was where he was meant to go. Anyways, I just thought you might like to know about Johnny Dee."

"Johnny Dee, that's a good one!" Seb called out after giving a large snort of a laugh.

Shezza shook his head as he glanced towards Adler once again. He didn't understand why she felt the need to do such a thing. Of course, he didn't think she knew a thing about his relationship with Johnny, but it still bothered him to a great level. Now he just had to focus on not letting it show.

She certainly was aware she was doing  _something,_  otherwise she wouldn't have started in such a way to begin with.

Now everyone was starting to giggle as Adler began to pretend she was Sandra Dee, moving around on her tiptoes and always being ever so pure. It all turned to laughter within a few moments, and Shezza was forced to laugh along with them. If he just remained sitting still and silent, he would be the odd one out and then have to figure out an excuse for it.

As he laughed, he didn't notice the sound of footsteps coming towards the group, the way they paused as they noticed what was going on. Through all of the laughing, one voice rang out through all the others.

"What are you doing?" Johnny called out, nearly running into the group of T-Birds and Pink Ladies. He'd almost considered some of these people his friends - and of course, he had much deeper feelings for Shezza. But now he knew better than all of that.

"Johnny, what are you doing here?" Shezza asked, trying to cover up his awkwardness with a short laugh.

"Science project," Johnny replied, his voice clipped. He walked straight in front of Shezza, taking a deep breath in order to calm himself down before he started to speak.

"I should've known this was how it was going to be," Johnny said, gritting his teeth. "Kind one minute, and then making fun of me the next, thinking I'll never see it."

"W-what?" Shezza stuttered. In just a few moments, he'd been turned into a mess because of Johnny. There was too much going on at the moment, and he tried to calculate all the ways he could turn the situation to his favor. Certainly there was some way.

"Oh, God, you're just going to pretend like you're clueless. If there's one thing I've learned about you, Sher...Shezza, it's that you're never clueless."

But, to a certain extent, Shezza was clueless. He certainly didn't have a good reason to be, especially not in Johnny's eyes, but he honestly wasn't quite sure what he'd done wrong. He'd never been very good at figuring out what other people were feeling and then reacting properly to it. He wanted to figure it out more than ever at this moment, but he couldn't.

"Listen, I really don't have a clue what you're talking about."

"So basically, you don't feel the need to think about it. You didn't just hear what she was going on about? I saw you laughing. It's like everything from before...it's like a huge lie."

Shezza just shook his head several times, wishing he could just pull Johnny off to the side and converse with him somewhere more private.

"Johnny, I'm not sure I know what to say to you at the moment."

"Really, Shezza? Is this really how it's going to be?"

"Johnny, I...I don't really know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't," Johnny said, his voice dripping with poison. With a deep breath, he raised his hand up and struck Shezza across the cheek. He'd barely even thought about it, and instead let his emotions take control of his body. He wanted to regret it as soon as he did it...but he couldn't. He was far too hurt

"I can't believe you," Johnny said before turning on his heels and storming out of the group. Nearly everyone watching on the scene found their jaws dropping down to the floor. Shezza rubbed his now sore cheek, trying to use the time in order to figure out precisely what he'd just been through. Johnny, of all people, had slapped him across the cheek.

He watched as Johnny beat his feet across the ground, making sure to escape the situation as quickly as he could. In fact, it felt like he couldn't take his eyes off of him. His gaze followed for as long as it possibly could, as if Johnny might just come back.

As silly as it seemed to Shezza, he felt hurt by the slap - and not just because of the whole physical aspect. No, despite trying to keep emotions from poisoning his mind, he felt upset that he'd worked up Johnny to a point where he felt the need to slap him. And he still didn't know what he'd done wrong, and the not knowing was one of the worst things he could imagine.

Another point of concern was the fact no one else knew what was going on - this meant that everyone wanted to know what was going on. With such drama and tension hanging in the air, they certainly couldn't ignore what had just happened.

Shezza decided on the first thing that popped into mind - he would try to divert the subject to something he didn't have to worry about being a bad subject for him or anyone else. It would be neutral, and he wouldn't have to stress over anything.

"So, Johnny Casino's band is coming to the dance on Friday, right? Johnny Casino and what's his name...Vince Fontaine. That's the one."

"Trying to change the subject, Shez?" Seb asked, glancing over towards him.

"There's no subject to change," Shezza replied, forcing out a laugh. He needed to act his way out of the situation. It certainly wouldn't be the first time he'd been forced to do such a thing, and he could easily pull it off again. He was sure of it. Besides, he knew that with a single yell he could get all of the T-Birds and Pink Ladies to turn away from him.

"Of course there's not," Seb replied awkwardly, shifting around on the blanket he was sitting on.

But while he was far too fearful he might end up upsetting Shezza over his questions, Adler didn't have any of these apprehensions. Anything that might've held her back was immediately pushed out of her way, and she cleared a path straight to the leader of the T-Birds.

"Adler," Shezza said, bregrudgingly providing a greeting to her as she continued walking towards him with hands on both her hips. She stopped right in front of him, a slight smile turning up her lips.

"What was that all about, Shezza?" Adler asked, crossing her arms. "Sorry that your Johnny Dee ended up being a little more fierce than we were expected. But he is thinking about going into the army, after all..."

"And how the hell do you know something like that?" Shezza asked, his irritation shining out more than anything else.

"I have my ways," Adler replied, giving a wink. "Now, if you don't mind, I can keep a secret."

Shezza glared over in her direction, trying to gauge precisely how little he could trust her. He was reminded of back when they'd been going out - it'd been quite a strange whirlwind, each of them constantly trying to outdo the other in everything. Shezza was to the T-Birds as Adler was to the Pink Ladies...and a good portion of the T-Birds as well.

"It's none of your business," Shezza replied, deciding against telling her. It just wouldn't end well, he knew it. "In other words, you better just be on your way back to Moriarty."

"If that's all you really want me to do, then I guess I might as well," Adler said. "Just remember that I will find out, one way or another. There's always a way for me to figure it out."

Of course, Adler already knew a good portion of what was going on, and she was piecing together another part of the puzzle every few moments. She felt confident that in very little time she'd be able to see the full picture laid out in front of her. She didn't want the information to be nefarious, either. Adler just wanted to understand what was going on, like everyone else.

The only difference was that she actually had a drive to get the information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song from this chapter is "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" from all versions of Grease!


	10. The Way It Should Be

Shezza absolutely refused to admit to anyone else that he was actually very upset - it was lucky that he was typically rather good at avoiding showing off any of his emotions. It led sometimes to people thinking he didn't have emotions at all. He just didn't want them to get the way, that was all.

And it was all because of Johnny. He'd been spending more time then he'd prefer to say in order to try and figure out something that could work out in order to let them get a decent relationship. He knew they were more than capable of working out something. It just seemed to be right out of his grasp, for some reason.

The main issue between them was Shezza's reluctance to let any of the others find out about how precisely he knew Johnny and why he'd been so upset. After all, he raised his arm and struck Shezza across the cheek. If that didn't say something was going on between them, Shezza didn't know what did. 

He still wasn't quite sure what he'd done wrong - he felt as if he'd done only what he needed to do and little more. Where Shezza had gone wrong completely escaped him, but it apparently felt very obvious to Johnny. The boy refused to explain a thing, however, and at this point he was gone. Shezza would have to wait for the entire situation to boil over before he could truly get any answers.

He supposed that everything might start to calm down by the time of the dance at the end of the week - maybe late on Friday night, he'd be able to speak to Johnny and get some real answers. Then they could patch up their relationship and make it work. 

But of course, there was a good bit of time between the current moment and the dance. There was also plenty of work Shezza had to do in order to be successful in making this all work out before that point - lots of things had to be tweaked and fixed. 

Shezza's first thought was that he needed to make sure that he made sure he glided right over the situation with Johnny, at least for the moment. He just needed to get himself through, and he'd be able to figure it all out. Things needed to be done step by step, and then he'd be able to get everything he wanted - and most importantly he could get Johnny back.

Unfortuantely enough, he needed to get to someone else first. As the leader of the T-Birds, he couldn't exactly go ahead to the dance without having a date. He could play it off as being a cool thing to go alone, but he wasn't even sure he'd be able to do something like that. This meant it was up to him to snag up one of the Pink Ladies before they'd all been asked to the dance.

Molly was already taken by Greg - somewhat of a shame, really, but he could find someone else. He just knew that she would've been easy to pick up in previous days - he'd noticed her sometimes getting flustered around him. But she seemed to be happy now that she was with Greg, and he just had to move on to someone else. 

He glanced around and then noticed that Adler was now standing by herself on the exterior of the group. She'd placed a cigarette in her hands and occassionally took a drag, looking very upset with the rest of the world. It was a slow burning, simmering sort of anger, as if she could break the world apart and still look bored. 

Of course, this was a dangerous position for her to be in. But Shezza didn't seem to be bothered by this fact at all. He just walked over to her as normal.

"Adler, what are you up to?" Shezza asked, approaching her with a slight air of amusement in his every step. He couldn't help but notice her sour look and find it somewhat funny - she'd be upset with him, but he didn't mind it that much.

"Oh, you know, just thinking about how much of a hub cap Moriarty really is," Adler said, diverting her eyes to the side in order to see Sherlock slightly better. She refused to turn her entire body around, however - she felt like he didn't deserve that much attention from her, especially at the moment.

"A hub cap? Really, Adler? He's better than that."

"Well, you don't know all the crap he's just put me through. We were going to go to the dance and all, but not anymore. I'm not forcing myself to suffer through something like that."

"Are you going to tell me any of the crap he's just put you through?" Shezza asked, already knowing the answer.

"Why would I tell you? You'd just deduce it out of me anyway, wouldn't you?" she asked. She took a glance over towards the bench where she had been sitting and noticed Moriarty had gotten off his seat and held his arms out in order to draw attention towards him.

"Wait for it - he's just about to speak about it and try to rub it all in."

"What the hell are you-" Shezza began.

"You should all know," Moriarty announced, right on cue. "I have a date lined up for the dance. And she's from St. Bernadette's - you know about those girls. I've heard she's a real bombshell. You'll just have to wait and see."

Moriarty and Adler met eyes for a moment, each of them rolling their eyes at the other's behavior. She even placed a scowl upon her face as she looked over to him, making her look thoroughly disgusted by his very existence. One never would've guessed the two had been hip to hip just minutes ago - their relationship seemed to have flipped completely. 

"Now, you see," Adler groaned. "He just won't shut up, and now he's somehow managed to find someone to go out with him. Bet he had someone else set it up for him before we worked anything out. He doesn't give a damn about me, that much is for sure."

"Sorry to hear about that," Shezza said absentmindedly. 

"Don't lie to make me feel better," Adler scoffed, rolling her eyes slightly before raising her cigarette to her lips once again. "God, Shez. I expect better from you, at the very least. Then again, I expected a hell of a lot more from Moriarty and we both saw how that worked out."

"Fine then," Shezza exclaimed. This would've been the best opportunity for him to leave the scene, but he felt an obligation to see it all through. He'd gotten himself wrapped up into it, and his curiosity to figure out the intricaticies of the situation was relentless. He continued standing beside Adler despite closing his eyes in order to give himself a better focus."

Shezza started figuring out what they'd just been through. While normally the two tended to be right beside one another for the entirety of their time together, they now seemed to be as far away as they could possibly be while still saying in the area. Just several minutes ago, they'd been right next to one another. 

It certainly seemed as if they had some sort of romantic relationship going on, but it was somewhat difficult to tell when it came to those two in particular. Nevertheless, something had happened and they'd gotten angry with one another. It was most likely that Moriarty ended up insulting Adler in some way and she'd gotten fired up with him.  
No one else would dare to act that way around Moriarty - out of all of the T-Birds, he was without a doubt the one who could most likely cause some serious damage if it came around to it. That, and he had a short enough fuse that it wouldn't take much to cause such a thing to happen. 

Of course, Adler always created enough friction to make sparks no matter what she was up to, and this couldn't have been much different. She'd started a fire that burned down Moriarty's fuse until they ended up hating each other - at least for the moment.

But Shezza saw an opportunity reaching out for him, tempting him to get something for himself out of this whole mess. Certainly now he could manipulate the situation to his liking - too many bad things had happened as of late, and now it was up to him to try to fix some of them.

"Hey, Adler..."

"What're you using that tone of voice for?" she said, letting out a slight snort. "I mean, really, Shezza."

"Well, I was wondering if you might want to go to the dance with me."

This was enough to get Adler sitting up and looking over towards him with a true interest in her eyes - she never would've seen this much coming, that was for sure. Now that he'd asked it, though, it did seem to make a good amount of sense. 

The two dated a long time back - the entire relationship had been less than good, with each one trying to outdo the other in everything. In the end, they'd broken up because it was just too difficult trying to compete with one another at such close quarters. Then Shezza noticed that Adler tended to spend an awful lot of her time with Moriarty, and he figured she'd completely moved on.

But that wasn't to say that she wouldn't go out to the dance with him - as neither of them had a date due to relationship problems, they'd just have to go along with one another. They'd figured out a simple (albeit temporary) solution to a rather complicated set of problems, so it only made sense to take it while they could.

"Sure, why not? It's not like anyone else is going to have the guts to ask me out," Adler answered, making sure to keep her eyes fixed on Shezza the entire time. She didn't want to make it look as if she were weak for even a moment.

"Then that's what we'll do."

Satisfied with this new scenario, Adler sat down next to Shezza on his picnic blanket. He couldn't help but feel himself wishing he had Johnny beside him instead, but he said nothing about it. At the moment, there were some mixed feelings about Johnny floating around the group - and a good amount of them had been sparked by Adler to begin with.

Now that pairs were popping up among the T-Birds and Pink Ladies, it seemed clear that one couple was missing despite the fact they'd never been an official couple. It just seemed predestined to happen. 

"Hey, Sarah," Andy began, making his way towards the Pink Lady. She took a drag on her cigarette and then looked up to him, giving him a welcoming smile. While this was mostly meant to be friendly, it only ended up causing him to freeze up even more. 

"Yeah, Andy?" she asked, continuing using her smile. She didn't realize the ill effects it was currently having on Andy - he couldn't handle seeing her face light up in such a lovely way. It threw him completely off his guard.

He'd always admired her, even though that was a fact he'd chosen to ignore for a long period of time. Now he needed to make sure he actually acted out on it for once. It was never as important as this moment. But of course, this only helped to build more pressure on his shoulders. He didn't know how to force the words out while trying to handle the weight at the same time.

He only needed a few words - he ran over them in his head once again as if that could somehow make it so he didn't have any more problems. _Sarah, are you free on the night of the dance?_ Or perhaps he should be more formal. _Sarah, will you go to the dance with me?_  There were simply too many possibilities for his liking, and he didn't know how to work them all out.

All he had to do was open his mouth, push some air out, and form his lips into those simple things. Andy could talk, at the very least. He could do this. He could. He had to, otherwise he couldn't go out with Sarah, and he felt like he needed to do just that. 

"I...it's nice to see you here," he finally said, finding his eyes widening to twice their normal side before he turned and ran. He couldn't do it. It just was impossible for him at the moment, completely and utterly impossible. 

"What the hell was that?" Sarah asked, looking over towards Anthea with a nervous gleam in her eyes. "You did see that, didn't you?"

Anthea nodded a few times, only glancing over to Sarah once before putting her gaze right back in front of her. 

"Well, he was about to ask you to the dance," Anthea replied, giving a shrug. "I thought that would be pretty obvious."

"Andy, ask me to the dance?" Sarah asked, her eyes widening. "You must be joking."

"Last time I checked, I didn't have any reason to joke about it. But if you don't want to listen to me, then fine. Don't."

Sarah looked down, trying to think through the situation. Perhaps Anthea was correct - Andy really had been about to ask her to the dance. But at the same time, she was distracted by Anthea's behavior.

"What's got you all worked up?"

"I don't have a date, period...because of reasons," Anthea said, pursing her lips. "In other words, don't come crying to me because you don't have a date of your own. I understand, it's not a good feeling. But everyone _good_ has been taken up, and my boyfriend won't be seen with me at the dance."

"Sorry to hear that," Sarah sighed. But of course, she was a bit more preoccupied that she had _almost_  been asked out to the dance. Maybe she just had to wait a little longer until it worked out - but just sitting around and waiting didn't feel right to her. 

"Andy!" she called out, looking for where the boy had run off to. She spotted him turned away from the group, facing away from everyone as if that would somehow make everything feel better. His face was insanely flushed at the moment because of the embarrassment he'd caused for himself. 

"Andy, hey," she said, walking around so that they were facing one another. 

"Hey, Sarah," he mumbled in response, refusing to meet her eyes. He'd already made enough of a fool of himself in front of her and now he was going to make it worse. He knew it.

"Andy, I was wondering if you'd want to go to the dance with me," Sarah said. 

"What?"

"Well, do you?"

"Of...of course!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "We Go Together," the Act I finale in the stage version of Grease!


	11. My Baby Likes To Rock

As the T-Birds and Pink Ladies began to gather at the dance, it became clear that some were far more interested in it than others - which, of course, wasn't all that surprising. The group assembled quickly, forming a blob on the edge of all the dancers where they could all converse and interact before stepping in.

Sarah was mainly having difficulty trying to find her date. Andy seemed to have disappeared within the bunch, too embarrassed to even glance at her for more than a moment. She was somewhat upset over this as she'd put an awful lot of time in her outfit. The exact opposite seemed to apply to Seb, who was standing right beside her.

The best dressed two had to be Adler and Moriarty - their outfits both had elements of deep red, almost as if they'd coordinated. But as Shezza took his "date's" arm, he was able to deduce that they were just as furious with one another as they'd been for ages.

Molly, despite being a Pink Lady, was dressed from head to toe in yellow. Despite choosing a rather innocent color, she managed to find a rather daring and revealing dress to wear. Greg couldn't help but gawk over in her direction - oh, he'd found the right girl in order to bring to the dance and hopefully end up going steady with.

Greg had spent so much of his time trying to get ready and look good as soon as Molly came along - he wanted to be at least somewhat impressive. But of course, she ended up looking far better than he ever could. He just hadn't put the same amount of time and care into it. For her, it seemed to be an effortless sort of thing.

Anthea, while her outfit was lovely as usual, wore a frown as a less-than-attractive accessory. She wanted to find herself a proper date to make up for the fact her boyfriend couldn't exactly come with her, but she had ended up failing completely. Everyone good had been taken before she could get to them, of course. Most likely, she'd end up leaving early - and she was fine with that.

However, there was one person standing in the group that no one had ever seen before. Despite this, she managed to look as if she fully believed she had always been part of the group and fit in absolutely perfectly.

"I don't believe we've met before," Sarah said, unable to keep a pleased smile off her lips because of her current situation. However, she didn't get much of a bright response from the girl in return.

"No, I don't think we have," the girl said, the "smile" coming on her face being absolutely forced and almost more like a grimace. She then turned away as if to speak to someone else, but instead she just looked over the dance with a slight amount of disgust in her eyes.

Sarah moved around to her front in order to continue talking to her (although she wasn't sure she wanted to).

"Er...what's your name? I'm Sarah, and I'm one of the Pink Ladies here. Are you new here?" she said, trying to be as kind as possible.

"My name is Janine, and I'm the best dancer at St. Barts," she announced, raising her nose just high enough into the air so that she could show off her superiority just a bit more.

"Oh. I see," Sarah said. At least it didn't seem like this Janine wanted to carry on the conversation any further - that meant she could easily turn away and attempt to find Andy within the group of people. Before she left, though, she cast another small glance towards Janine as if to figure out something more about her.

It was impossible to deny that Janine was actually quite an attractive girl - her dark hair cascaded down her back, and her skin was nearly airbrushed perfection. Just the way she held herself made her seem very lovely - but there was also an aura around her, as if she truly thought herself better than everyone else.

Of course, Sarah was far from the only person to have noticed the way she'd come into their group. There didn't seem to be much of an explanation for it, until Moriarty came forwards and touched Janine on the arm. Everyone ended up gradually figuring out what had happened - Shezza being the first of all of them.

Moriarty left Janine behind after only a few moments and then gravitated towards the men of the group who weren't already with their weight. Seb was the first to jump out at him, attempting to find out something more about the current situation.

"That's your date, Moriarty?" Seb asked, letting out a snigger.

"Well, yeah - I thought she'd do just fine. I don't see you doing much better. Actually, last time I checked, you didn't have a date."

Seb's face turned red from both embarrassment and from anger. He should've known Moriarty would find his weak point and pull it open. He had a funny knack for finding them quickly, but it never ended up being very enjoyable for anyone who was on the victim end of the spectrum.

"Maybe...maybe you should..." Seb stuttered, trying to find a way to fight back against Moriarty. No matter how much he wanted to get even a moment of revenge, he just couldn't manage to get it out. Shezza witnessed this exchange but quickly decided he didn't really want to get involved with it. He'd much rather go to Janine in an attempt to find out more about her.

He could deduce things from a distance, of course, but he felt it would be better if he more or less interrogated her. After all, Adler didn't seem to be very interested in anything he had to say, so therefore Shezza found his best bet would be to go elsewhere and find out something new.

"St. Barts, you said?" Shezza asked, his mind drifting back to when he'd thought that Johnny would be going to that particular school. Now it started to seem like such a long time ago, and it really made things begin to set in. He'd nearly forgotten that he was speaking to Janine in the first place.

"Yeah, St. Barts," she said, shooting a dazzling smile over in his direction. However, he missed it due to being so lost in thought. He'd come over just to figure out what exactly this Janine girl was about, and only after four words he'd more or less forgotten about why he was there.

Molly had overheard just about everything Janine had said, but she hadn't really said much of anything about it quite yet. She almost didn't want to acknowledge the fact she was standing there, instead, she turned to see her own date to the dance standing there. She'd just have to talk to Greg about it.

"I thought we were only allowed to have people from our school come to the dances," Molly murmured over towards Greg.

"It's not like I care about anyone else coming along," he said, shrugging. "I mean, it's really just the two of us right now."

"Oh," she squeaked in response, utterly shocked by this - but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel pleased. "Well, yes. It is."

"So...we should dance, yeah?"

"Yeah," Molly replied, finding it difficult to make eye contact with him for more than a few moments. Despite the fact that he'd asked her to dance and she'd obliged, she ended up standing there as Greg became more and more perplexed by her behavior.

"We should dance, right?" he asked again, trying to see if he could get a real answer out of her this time around - honestly, he really wanted to dance with her. He just loved to spend time with her despite the way she always seemed so awkward around him. He liked to think that it might've been because she was truly interested in being near him, even though it made her nervous.

"Yes, let's dance," she finally said. Greg's eyes lit up as she allowed him to take her hand and lead her into the enormous group of other students, already dancing out as much of their youthful energy as they possibly could. Molly's bright yellow ensemble would stick out, but honestly Greg wanted that. He wanted everyone to see just how gorgeous his date to the dance was.

But while those two headed off to go dance, someone else came bounding in as if to take their place. Kitty's bright red hair bounced along as she came right towards Shezza, calling out his name.

"Shezza! Hi, Shezza!"

"Oh, God," he murmured under his breath as she got closer.

"Oh, Shezza, you don't have a date?" Kitty said, her voice beginning to turn even higher.

"Well, actually, I-" Shezza began, trying to weasel himself out of the current situation by telling the truth. Adler was standing right over to the side, and she was meant to be his date. However, he quickly realized that she must've reconciled with Moriarty - the two were together once again.

Shezza allowed a short sigh to escape from his lips. Of course they would end up getting over their fight while they were both all dressed up in the center of a high school dance. It was so perfect, almost too perfect - and yet, he hadn't expected anything less from those two. No matter how tough they made themselves out to be, their softer side always ended up exposed.

But while he felt somewhat pleased to see the two were no longer at one another's necks, he now understood he had no way of escaping from Kitty. She didn't seem like she would end up going away any time soon. That simply wasn't a very Kitty Riley thing to do - she would pester until she got what she wanted.

"I need to go to talk to my friends right now," Shezza said, trying to force an apologetic tone into his voice. He didn't bother checking whether or not it had actually been successful before he began walking away. Unfortunately, Kitty ended up grabbing his arm and pulling him back.

"Come on, Shezza, you promised me a dance!" she whined. "I'm not going to leave you until you give me a dance."

"I don't remember promising you a dance," Shezza replied, wrinkling up his nose. He knew himself - he would never promise something like that. He took his promises far too seriously to do something like that.

"Well, you did," Kitty replied, pouting out her lips. "And you need someone to dance with, anyways. Why not just dance with me?"

"Fine, fine!" Shezza replied, throwing his arms into the air. He just wanted to shut her up, as nothing else mattered to him at the moment. "I'll dance with you. Just one song, though. I have other things to do."

"Things other than dancing at a dance? Oh, don't be so silly, Shezza! Let's wait until the next song in order to do this, though - I want to have all the time I can have!" she cooed.

"Fine," he agreed, begrudgingly. The two stood there and waited for the next song to come along, Kitty up on her toes and bouncing while Shezza was more or less slumped over with a look on his face to match.

Shezza let out a groan as his fears came true - the next song was a slow one, of course. Just his luck that Kitty would get to pull herself up against him and sway to a song of love. At least she might end up shutting up for the three minutes where she was right there, clutching him like some sort of snake constricting him.

"Oh, I love this song!" Kitty screeched out. "Don't you love this song, Shezza?"

"No," Shezza said. In reality, he didn't mind the song all that much (he had a healthy respect for music in general, after all), but he didn't want to give in to Kitty any further.

Kitty still embraced him with a squeal, immediately burying her face into his chest so that she could get herself as close to him as possible. As someone who generally seemed to be clean cut, she was awfully physical at the moment. Shezza hated it from the very beginning, of course, but he knew he'd be better off just getting it over with.

He awkwardly hung his arms around her shoulders, making sure to make it as not intimate as possible. Kitty already seemed to have the wrong idea about all sorts of things, and he didn't want to push her any closer to him.

He just wanted to make it through this song, in all sincerity - that way he'd fulfill his "promise" and also be able to get away from her easily. For the moment, he was just surveying the dance for something could possibly hold his interest while he was dancing.

As he looked over Kitty's shoulder, he was able to see Adler and Moriarty chatting to one another as if they'd never had any sort of conflict with one another. He unexpectedly felt a twinge of jealousy right in his gut - why couldn't he be able to find some sort of peace when it came to his relationship with John?

He'd much rather have John within his arms - then he wouldn't mind pulling him closer. But things just hadn't been going so well as of late. Even though he'd finally admitted to himself that he was falling in quite a major way for the boy who was going to St. Bart's, he'd only managed to drive them further apart.

Maybe he'd be able to figure something out - but first he found that there was something that could end up releasing his mind and giving him a moment to breathe. The dance contest would be coming up in just a matter of minutes, and he wanted nothing more than to dance.

This, however, ended up leading directly into another pressing issue - he didn't have anyone to dance with. Even if John had come along, they probably wouldn't have been able to dance with one another due to the fact they were both boys.

In one way or another, he'd be able to figure it out - he'd never failed to figure out just about any problem before in his life. He wasn't about to let his relationship with Johnny, someone he knew shared his feelings, end up being the first thing he couldn't find a solution to. Johnny was just another case he needed to solve.

Kitty somehow managed to squeeze him even harder, pushing out almost all of the the air in his lungs along with the thoughts in his head. He closed his eyes - soon, this will all be better. Maybe not great, certainly not perfect, but better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "Shaking at the High School Hop" from the stage version of Grease! Also, I apologize for the gap in updates last week - I was on vacation in New York City and didn't have my writing available. We'll be back to weekly updates from now on! Thank you all for 1K hits and for all of the lovely comments and the kudos!


	12. Cruel Force of Nature

Johnny attempted to find the best side of everything - it was simply how his personality worked, the way his mind more or less caused him to act. Almost always he could find a ray of sunshine peeking out from behind a cloud, could find a speck of gold in a dull rock. One might even think it was a gift of his, being able to find good things in bad places.

But on the night of the dance, he seemed perfectly unable to find anything. As he sprawled out on his bed in complete silence, he was attacked by an armada of his own thoughts. He wished it would be simple to just get them through with and do something he found productive, but he couldn't easily cast them all aside.

Johnny decided during the week of the dance that he wouldn't be going - there was too much drama involved with people at the school. He didn't exactly feel like getting back in touch with Sarah after breaking up, nor did he want to see Kitty Riley or Adler. And, of course, there was also the problem of Shezza being there.

That was the last thing Johnny wanted to put himself through - seeing Shezza with some other girl. He'd be sure to get a date, being the leader of the T-Birds and all. Even if he didn't set something up ahead of time, he could easily pick up some girl who got ditched by their date. They'd dance all night, and Shezza might even start flirting...he had a funny habit of doing things like that...

Johnny rubbed his eyes as if this could force these thoughts out of his head. He'd never considered himself to be a jealous type, but then again he'd never considered himself to be the type to fall for someone like Shezza. He didn't even know what Shezza was up to and he still felt jealousy over it.

He heaved out a sigh as he let the facts of the situation that he was sure of set in - he was missing the dance at the moment. Almost the entire school had been going there, getting themselves as dressed up as they could possibly manage before heading out in an attempt to impress their dates (even though they'd already gotten the date to begin with).

In a way, it was kind of silly...Johnny, the master of positivity, was now trying to make himself find something negative about the dance just to make him feel better about not being there. Shezza had truly changed him more than he could've ever expected, but of course not in the ways one would've thought. Frankly, Johnny was a boy suffering from a strange form of heartbreak that he couldn't find a cure for.

He felt sure that he could work things out with Shezza - it just wouldn't be the night of the dance. Johnny was laying on his back, right on top of his bed, thinking through the current drama of his situation and trying to make himself feel better for not being at the dance. Maybe it would've been fun, even with all of the drama...

Johnny needed to find silver lining for this dark cloud immediately - he didn't know what else he could possibly do if he kept on going in the path that he was currently set out on. He tried to direct his thoughts in an entirely new direction and ended up finding something he could think about.

He thought about the army - he'd decided as a young child that he wanted to be a soldier. That decision had stuck with him as he grew up, but it was finally hitting him just how close he was to being able to make that a reality. This was his final year of high school, and then he would be heading into the army.

So many people had been proud of him, but plenty of others had been horribly worried about all of it. They fretted over the fact that it was horribly dangerous, that he'd likely end up hurt or even killed. No one wanted that fate for sweet little Johnny - and no one wanted to sweet little Johnny in a uniform and heading out to war.

But it wasn't anyone else's decision to make, Johnny knew. He would do what he wanted to do, and he wouldn't be letting anyone else stop him as time went on. He knew what he was capable of, and this was one of them. When he'd decided he would go through with it as a young boy, he dedicated his heart and soul into it. It wasn't just some passing dream.

Even Sherlock...or rather, Shezza...had been more or less unsure of thinking of Johnny being sent off. At least back during the summer he'd certainly  _cared_  about whatever Johnny did and how the rest of his life would turn out - it was almost as if he wanted to be a part of whatever he did for the rest of his life.

Not even Shezza could end up changing his mind, but especially not when the leader of the T-Birds had been treating Johnny so particularly badly. He would be a soldier as soon as he was old enough, and that time was approaching ever so quickly - once senior year was done, of course.

He would make a fine soldier - he was capable of being loyal, he knew he could be disciplined, he could certainly learn all of the skills that were necessary. To Johnny, it just seemed like the right thing for him to do.

Johnny gave a sigh once he realized his plan to change his mind away from Shezza and their relationship had failed. He just couldn't get all of it out of his head, even if he was thinking about his future and how it would inevitably work out. Perhaps it was his subconscious's way of telling him that he wanted to have Shezza in his future.

The more thought he put into his current situation, the more pitiful it seemed. It was Friday night and there were things to be done - he just wasn't doing them. If he tried to leave the house to go somewhere interesting, it would just end up being deserted by all of the people who made it interesting to begin with.

Johnny heaved out a sigh. He missed the days when he thought he was going to go to St. Bartholomew's and he'd already seen the last of Shezza. He never thought that would end up missing something as sad as that. But he preferred it a lot more to knowing that Shezza was right around the corner and ignoring him.

Johnny would just have to attempt something else - he had enough things in his room to keep him entertained, even on a Friday night where most people were having a major amount of fun and all grouped together. He'd gotten his own radio about a year ago and he hadn't let it collect any dust. Maybe it was time to turn it back up again.

He turned on the radio and immediately found himself regretting the decision he'd made - the song playing was far from the upbeat peppy song to bring up his spirits that he'd been hoping would be there.

" _I was deprived of a young girl's dream_

_By the cruel force of nature from the blue_

_Instead of a night full of romance supreme_

_All I got was a running nose and Asiatic flu._ "

Despite the song being sung by a girl, Johnny knew he could still sing along with it - and frankly, he couldn't think of anything else to do. He knew the song well enough to realize just how much he could apply it to his own problems. He wasn't exactly performing for anyone, so he didn't have to worry about sounding good.

" _It's raining on prom night_

_My hair is a mess_

_It's running all over_

_My taffeta dress,_ " Johnny sang along with the voice on the radio. His voice was soft and breathy, partially because he felt unsure if he was singing the correct lyrics or not and partially because he didn't want to be too loud with his voice. The last thing he wanted to was end up causing more trouble by waking up his parents.

He felt as if he could perfectly picture everyone at the dance, having the time of their lives. Almost the literal entire school would be there - the school dance was not something to be missed! Even people who didn't have a date would still go there just to see their friends for a few minutes.

There would be swirls of colors as all of the people bounced around the dance floor. Their fancy dresses and suits would blur together. The entire place would be filled with color and light, creating something that might as well be a work of art. Some people could go there just to see something like that.

The refreshments would be subpar, of course, but that was more or less to be expected from a school dance. Still, there was nothing better than a glass of almost blindingly bright fruit punch after you'd danced for what felt like hours on end. You'd fill up your glass and then down it within a few moments - then you'd go back to dancing.

Johnny couldn't remember the last time he'd been to a dance - his old school had been rather strict about letting that sort of thing happening. He'd never been much of one for parties, either, partially because his parents didn't really want him to go. Now that he finally got his opportunity to let it all come together, he'd ended up deciding against it.

All of the T-Birds and Pink Ladies would be going, of course. They would be some of the most powerful people standing in the room, and all of the girls would probably end up being the best dressed. They ruled Rydell, and that would make Shezza the king. All of them were probably having the times of their lives at the school dance.

Even Sarah was going to the dance, and she technically didn't even go to Rydell any more! He'd managed to keep getting information about her as they were next door neighbors and their paths crossed more often than not at Rydell.

Johnny had stopped singing after he ended up allowing himself to absorbed by his own thoughts. He started listening to the lyrics once again, finding himself letting out sighs every few seconds as if they were on a timer.

" _It's wilting the quilting_

_On my maiden form_

_And mascara flows right down my nose_

_Because of the storm._ "

The entire song was just so silly and almost downright stupid, now that Johnny allowed himself to listen to it fully. Yet, somehow, he could find himself truly beginning to relate to it. It wasn't prom night, but it was dance night and he certainly wasn't having a good time.

" _I don't even have my corsage, oh gee_

_It fell down a sewer_

_With my sister's I.D._ "

"Exactly," Johnny murmured to himself. Just like the girl singing in the song, nothing seemed to be going right for him. Perhaps it wasn't small things or a prom dress falling apart, but things weren't working out. He continued listening as the voice on the radio then broke out into a monologue of sorts with bits of musical interludes.

"Yes, it's raining on prom night.

Oh, my darling, what can I do? I miss you.

_It's raining rain from the skies_

_And it's raining real tears from my eyes over you_

Oh, dear God, make him feel the same way I do right now."

Make him want to see me again."

With a start, Johnny realized that he might as well have said those same words along with the radio - he could easily apply them to his situation with Shezza, no matter how much that simple thought ended up being hurtful. He now was completely enveloped into the song, beginning to sing along with it once again in an attempt to get his feelings out.

" _Oh what can I do?_

_It's raining rain from the skies_

_It's raining tears from my eyes over you_

_Raining, oh tears from my eyes over you_

_Raining, oh raining on prom night_

_Oh raining, oh, tears from my eyes over you_

_Oh raining!_ "

Once the song was through, Johnny allowed himself to collapse on his back on top of the bed. He glanced out the window as if he believed he would see hoards of raindrops cascading from the sky. It didn't take him long to understand that his desire for there to be rain just like in the song was just a silly hope.

No, the skies outside were clear and he could count plenty of skies speckling the dark night's canvas. He allowed himself to bask in this moment - the people at the dance were indoors, and they couldn't exactly experience this view of the night with a ceiling above their heads. In that way, Johnny would just have to consider himself lucky.

"John? Johnny?" a voice said, followed by a large amount of shuffling footsteps. Johnny's mother appeared in his doorway, her face giving away very little of whatever she was thinking about inside.

"Yeah, Mom?" he asked, turning around fully to face her and sitting up on the bed as well.

"Was that you singing?"

A flush started to spread across Johnny's face, but he did his best to ignore the burning feeling. "Yeah, I was," he admitted. Another song was still playing softly in the background behind them, but he decided to pretend like it was nothing more than another sound that came up during the night.

"You sounded rather good," his mother said, a smile playing at her lips. "I think Harriet likes that song, too."

"She does," Johnny admitted, sighing as he thought about his younger sister. She was going to junior high at the moment, but was also extremely tall for her age. As Johnny was rather short, she always liked to joke about how she was the bigger sibling simply because she was physically bigger.

"Isn't there a dance at Rydell tonight, Johnny?" his mother then asked.

"There is," he said, nodding a few times. "I'm sure Harriet would like that too."

"Well, why aren't you there?"

"I..." Johnny struggled to find an excuse for his behavior - he wasn't about to tell his mother that it was because the one person he wanted to go out on a date with had been somewhat strange towards him in recent days. There were two problems with that: one was that they were a greaser, the other was that they were a boy.

"I've been tired lately," he finally said. "I just didn't feel like going to the dance."

"But aren't all of your friends there?"

"Yeah, I guess they are."


	13. Can You Hand Jive?

"He's making his way up towards the stage," Molly exclaimed over towards Greg.

The two had been dancing for quite a while, but it was no longer as intense as it had been when they'd first jumped into it all. Now she found herself distracted by Mycroft Holmes going for the microphone on stage, the microphone that was typically in the hands of the radio announcer Vince Fontaine.

"Well, well, well!" Vince called out from the microphone, glancing over everyone slowly stopping their dancing in order to listen to what he had to say. As he typically had control of the radio, he also had control of the teenagers. "I hate to break it to you, but I'm going to disappear for a while and let Mr. Mycroft Holmes take over the mic for a while! It's all you now, Myc!"

As the microphone was passed from Vince to Mycroft, the sounds of the latter correcting his name amplified throughout the entire auditorium. A few giggles arose from this, but no one said anything in particular. They didn't want to feel the wrath of the older Holmes.

"It is time for the dance contest, which I believe all of you have been looking forwards to...although I cannot imagine why," Mycroft began. He'd been given responsibility over looking over the dance, which was a source of much pain for him. The only reason he'd stood with it was because he wanted to look over Sherlock and Anthea.

A cheer burst out of the auditorium, the buzz of energy building as everyone began preparing themselves. Several of the students were mumbling as Vince Fontaine crept through the crowd, trying to find his own bit of fun within the group. After all, just a few years ago he'd been a student as well.

"Settle down, settle down!" Mycroft exclaimed. He hated the feeling that he had very little power over the group at this time, but there didn't seem to be anything he could do except for attempt to bark at them.

The main problem was that the students couldn't calm down - they'd become far too excited by the announcement that the dance contest to begin. Going out to the dance was important enough, but this was the one thing that everyone was waiting for and couldn't wait to do.

"I suppose you may be excited due to the prizes we have...but those won't be revealed until the winners have been selected," Mycroft droned on. In all sincerity, he just didn't understand why everyone found the idea of dancing so thrilling. He'd had to deal with his little brother always talking about it for such a long time, but he never saw the appeal.

He continued speaking, but less and less people were paying attention. Even Anthea had stopped listening, as she was now speaking in low tones to someone new - Vince Fontaine himself! He was certainly cute enough to recieve her attention. A little flirting certanly couldn't hurt anyone, she decided.

"Now, we have several rules to explain before the contest can begin."

Instead of cheers, the crowd in front of him let out an enormous groan. No one wanted to listen to Mycroft to begin with, not unless he was telling them that the contest would begin. Nevertheless, he went on as if nothing had happened.

"Rule number one. All contestants must be in couples. Boy and girl only, please," he said. He opened his mouth to continue with rule number two, but the crowd had become restless at the thought that there might be a couple that  _wasn't_  boy and girl. Shezza suddenly became very still at this new buzz of energy.

"Rule number two," Mycroft continued, raising his voice and forcing everyone back into silence. "No vulgar movements, or you will be disqualified." This started to rouse up the crowd once again, but Mycroft continued as if nothing happened.

"And rule number three - if Vince Fontaine taps you or your partner on the shoulder, you must stop."

He began peering out into the audience as if to catch any potential rulebreakers before the actual competition had even begun. There were certainly troublemakers out there...people who liked to hang out with Sherlock and all, those Thunder Birds or whatever they were called...

As he continued scanning every face, Mycroft made eye contact with Anthea - who immediately proceeded to pretend that she hadn't noticed anything. She'd already managed to make sure that she had Vince Fontaine wrapped around her finger, and she hadn't even told him her name yet. Fortunately he was off getting her a glass of punch at the moment so Mycroft wouldn't notice anything.

She wasn't  _really_  cheating on him at the moment - a little flirting with someone else wouldn't do much of any harm, would it? Right after the dance Anthea would make sure to send him another letter explaining how much she cared (and she'd drench it in the perfume scent that she knew Mycroft liked best - her own secret to always getting what she wanted).

Mycroft regrouped himself in order to speak once again, wanting to be sure that his rules would be strictly followed and enforced but knowing that no matter what he wouldn't be able to control everything.

"I believe I have made the rules clear and simple - there should be no complications, as far as I'm concerned," he said. Mycroft felt certain that this group of silly children would manage to make as many complications as humanly possible, but he decided not to dwell on that fact for the moment.

"The contest will begin in just a few moments, as soon as we get Mr. Fontaine back on the stage...I'm sure he'll do an acceptable job of beginning the dance contest..." Mycroft continued. Vince seemed to have vanished completely, and now he felt as if he needed to fill up the empty air. In all sincerity, all of the students would've much rather had him remain silent.

It turned out that if only Mycroft had looked for Anthea out in the crowd, he would've been able to find Vince as well. The two were standing very close to each other, their voices dropping lower and lower as time went on. Anthea just couldn't help but flirt - it was too fun to possibly resist. She wasn't planning to be in the dance contest when she could just talk to Vince.

Shezza was becoming distressed, a feeling which he particularly loathed. He desperately needed a partner to dance with, but everyone seemed to have grouped up with someone already. Yes, he'd brought Adler to the dance, but she'd already ran off to dance with Moriarty.

Wait - Moriarty had brought someone else to the dance. He'd had that blind date, that girl named Janine. Shezza sought her out in the crowd. Once he found her, he swaggered over, attempting to look as casual as possible.

"You mentioned something about dancing over at St. Bart's?" Shezza asked, not even looking directly towards Janine while he spoke.

"Yeah, I did," she replied, placing her hands on her lips and leaning over towards him. "Do you want to hear more about it?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about it," he said, now finally turning around to face her directly. "I'll let you in something if you want to hear..."

"Oh, go on then," Janine whispered in response. With the promise of secrets right around the corner, she just couldn't help herself. "What is it?"

"I love dancing. I've always loved it," Shezza admitted. He had a feeling he'd never end up seeing this girl again after this dance, and letting that particular secret out wasn't going to hurt him.

"Is this your way of asking me to be your dance partner?"

"Well, I need a girl for the contest, and I'm not passing up anything that has to do with dancing."

"I think I'll take you up on your offer, Shezza," Janine replied, a smile curling across her lips. "So, you're ready for this to begin?"

"I was born ready."

"As long as you were born ready to hand jive."

The two glanced up to the stage to see that Vince had made his way back to the stage (he'd been far too distracted by Anthea for quite a while to do much of anything, but he'd finally snapped out of it after Mycroft had called out his name several times).

"All right, all you cats out there! Throw your mittens around your kittens, and away we go!" Vince called out. There was an enormous burst of noise right as the band kicked into gear and all of the students scrambled to get into their positions. The band burst into a high energy number as everyone began to dance.

The basic idea was simple - it was the hand jive dance contest, which meant there had to be a whole lot of impressive hand jiving on top of the dancing itself. There was a deep current of competition rushing beneath all of the excited exteriors - they all felt a need to win this dance contest. All of this churned together as the music continued blasting onwards.

Laughs and shrieks of happiness kept popping out over the music - it was almost too much fun. Mycroft still couldn't see what was so great about it, nor did he understand why they all enjoyed the music with its lyrics hardly better than nonsense.

" _Cause the beebop stork was about to arrive_

_Mama gave birth to the hand-jive!_ "

Nevertheless, Mycroft surveyed from the corner as Vince Fontaine made his way through the crowd and looked at each and every group of dancers. The couples were tapped out one by one, the disappointed losers moving over towards the walls in order to see who was still left in the game.

Some of them were rather surprising - despite having danced for quite a while already, Molly and Greg were still going strong. When they were finally tapped to go out, there were very few couples left. Several people from the group had actually let out a sigh of disappointment - they'd loved watching the two who seemed to have what appeared to be limitless energy.

But there was one couple that stole everyone's gazes after a few seconds. No one seemed to be able to keep their eyes off of Shezza and the pretty girl that only a handful had ever met in their lives. They were, by far, the best dancers in the whole place. They could execute perfect lifts and swings like they'd been practicing for hours - and they'd only met one another an hour ago.

There was something about the two that just synced perfectly - they both loved to dance and they'd both needed someone to dance with. Some might even call it fate. Things were turning out absolutely perfectly at the moment for the two of them, and it seemed like they weren't going to be tapped out any time soon.

Janine couldn't help but let her lips curl into an enormously brilliant smile - even if this Shezza wasn't too interested in her, he was more than enough interested in her dance moves (and had enough of his own to be sufficient as well). She could more than likely find a way to carry that interest farther, after this was all through.

This only sparked her dancing to even be stronger, and Shezza immediately followed suit. Instead of getting more tired, they seemed to continue to get better as the song progressed along with the dance contest.

It became easier and easier to see what the two were doing as more and more couples were tapped out by Vince. Before long, the floor was nearly empty - groups of dancing were few and far between. Luckily, though, that didn't mean the energy had disappeared along with all of the losing teams in the dance contest.

If anything, anticipating was mounting and the energy expanding as the spectators now began to clap on those who remained. With less and less time until the entire thing was over, everyone had to pull out their very best stunts if they wanted to make it through. Janine and Shezza, however, were more than up to the challenge.

Right as the song was ending they went right into another round of hand jiving, jumping up with each movement they did. It looked like enormous fun to all of the spectators, some of whom joined in (but didn't dare move into the center, that was where the two were still continuing to dance like they were on some sort of television show).

" _Born to hand jive, oh yeah!_ "

The two froze in their final position, unaware that they'd been dancing alone on the dance floor for quite some time by that point. Sherlock had lifted Janine up into the air, where she had her hands out presenting herself to the audience. It was only then that the two realized they'd won the dance contest.

The group started cheering loudly as the two went up to the stage where Mycroft was waiting to finish up the dance contest. He was in charge of the prizes (he didn't trust anyone else to be in charge of them) and now was the moment where he needed to do his job.

"Well, it appears that Sherlock Holmes and...er..."

"Janine," she said, grabbing the microphone right out of Mycroft's hand so that she could have it for herself.

"And it's Shezza, not Sherlock," Shezza corrected, trying to pluck the microphone from Janine for himself. His brother should know his name by now - but of course, he just wouldn't accept it.

"Anyways, it appears that these two have won the dance contest."

A whoop gathered up around the crowd, although it was particularly loud where all the T-Birds and Pink Ladies had assembled. Shezza glanced over to see that all of his fellow greasers were jumping up and down in excitement over their leader winning. They were also mocking him to an extent, but he didn't care. He was the one who'd won the big dance contest, wasn't he?

Standing pridefully on the stage alongside Janine, the two each accepted their prizes one by one. Some of them were pretty great, like free passes to the drive-in movie. All of the others (mostly the ones Mycroft seemed to like) were boring, though, such as 10% off for admission to an art gallery. The students watching both ooh-ed and boo-ed each of the prizes as they saw fit.

Once the ordeal was through, Janine came up towards Shezza as if she were about to start speaking to him all over again. But of course, the dance contest was through. He'd managed to win and had collected all of his prizes - now he didn't care about her. She'd only been important when he needed someone to be part of a couple. Now that it was over, she might as well have never existed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "Born to Hand Jive," featured in both the stage and the film version of Grease! I would also like to thank everyone for 50 kudos and over 1250 reads! I never thought that this little project of mine would end up getting any of this attention.


	14. No Graduation Day For You

Sarah ran a hand over her hair with an enormous frown contorting her face. She brought her hand back in front of her face as if she expected it to be the colored the same as her hair. Unfortunately, this was not the case - the pink color was not going to rub off any time soon.

How had she managed to dye her hair pink? It just didn't make sense to her - she'd been trying so hard and did everything the way she was told. Nothing should've gone so wrong. She didn't deserve this for all her hard work and everything else! Hadn't she been a nice person?

Then again, being a nice person had nothing to do with the fact she couldn't manage to handle beauty school. She'd put so much effort into everything, but at the end of the day it just wasn't what she was meant to do.

At least she had a hat to wear over it - it didn't cover all of her hair, but as long as people didn't get close they wouldn't realize what had happened. For the moment, she assumed no one would be getting near to her - she was considering asking about a job inside of the Burger Palace.

Now that she'd managed to flop at beauty school, she needed a job somewhere where a high school diploma wasn't a requirement. They probably wouldn't mind having a waitress with pink hair (at least, it would be pink until the dye wore off)...but all of the T-Birds and Pink Ladies liked to hang out at the Burger Palace! She'd only end up embarrassing herself.

She was already embarrassing herself enough just by knowing that anyone could potentially see her pink hair if they passed by, and they would more than likely laugh at her. Why, it was almost certain that she would see someone she knew in the area before she decided what to do.

As if to prove her point, the T-Birds came parading in, all brandishing makeshift weapons. Andy was carrying what seemed to be a lead pipe, Greg had what looked like a glue gun...they were all preparing for something, but she didn't know what. The one thing that stuck out to her, however, was the fact that Shezza was missing from the group.

"What're you guys up to?" she called out. They all turned to face her, and she immediately readjusted her hat to make sure it was properly covering her hair.

"So apparently some guy called Magnussen heard about that broad Janine going to the dance on a blind date and then dancing with Shezza," Seb began explaining. He was about to continue, but Sarah cleared her throat in order to get her own few words in.

"Were they going steady or something, Magnussen and Janine?"

"I dunno what his problem was, but he's acting like he owns her," Andy piped up. "I think it's horrible, really, someone acting like that. I would never do something like that. That would be horrible, you know?"

"Apparently Janine said that Shezza put his hands all over her," continued Seb, as if no one had interrupted him. "And this Magnussen turned out to be the leader of the Flaming Dukes."

"Now we've got a rumble with the Flaming Dukes," Greg finished. "They think they're gonna pummel us, but obviously they've never rumbled with the T-Birds before."

"Oh, that sounds kind of dangerous," Sarah said, frowning slightly. "Are you sure you all want to go through with that?"

"It'll be a piece of cake, I promise," Seb replied. "Don't worry about getting yourself hurt, we'll protect you. Even though Shezza chickened out and decided to go to track practice instead..."

"I don't need protection, trust me," Sarah replied. It seemed as if Seb were about to come closer to her, and that meant he would notice her pink hair. He would see right under the hat she was wearing and realize what had happened. She wouldn't let that happen.

Luckily enough, he nodded a few times and then started walking off, trailing behind Moriarty who seemed to have become the leader in Shezza's absence. She realized with a start, however, that there was something she wanted to say.

"Hey, er, Andy," she called out, trying not to draw too much extra attention to herself and her hair. "Be careful out there, okay? I don't want you or anyone else to get hurt."

Andy turned around, thinking that he might be able to say something impressive and seem fairly casual about the fact he was about to go into a rumble, but as usual Sarah had caught him off guard and therefore he ended up stumbling over his words as he flushed.

"Yeah, I'll be careful. I promise."

He looked towards her with hope gleaming in his eyes, taking a few steps closer to her in order to have something better to say, closer up - but then he noticed something strange with Sarah's current appearance.

"Sarah, did something happen to your hair?"

Sarah immediately snapped her lips into a smile and tried to use all of her willpower to avoid reaching up to her hat to shift it around. "No, nothing happened," she replied, making her voice far too sweet. This only made Andy feel more curious, but he decided against pressing her any further because he knew he wouldn't get any information out of her...and the rest of the T-Birds had left without him.

Sarah heaved out a sigh as she left, slumping on the bench she was sitting on. Now she felt like she really couldn't go into the Burger Palace and look for a job. The T-Birds would likely be back fairly soon, and she'd probably be forced to explain why she was there to begin with. She just didn't know what to do.

"Gee, I wish I could have an guardian angel of my own to guide me along through all this," she said. "It would be so nice...just like in that Debbie Reynolds movie...except she didn't have pink hair..."

As she sat there, wallowing in her own sadness, she suddenly heard a sound almost like a harp. She creased her eyebrows and began looking around for the source when she spotted what seemed to be an enormous staircase descending from the heavens, gleaming an ethereal white. She started to look closer and realized there was someone coming down.

"My very own angel," she gasped. He soon managed to come right before her and took her hand. She noticed that he looked like a cross between a handful of different movie stars plus a bit of Andy as well. In other words, he seemed to be absolutely perfect for her.

"Your story is a pretty sad one to tell, Miss Sarah," he began, his voice coming out as smooth as anyone on the radio. "Everything's all mixed up - your future is all murky, and who knows what's left of your career? It's a real shame you can't get a trade in on your smile...or your smock."

Sarah didn't reply, mostly because she couldn't reply - she was too busy gawking over at this man, this guardian angel who had produced an entire staircase just to descend to her. He seemed to be glowing, literally - he produced his own light which in turn made a nearly blinding effect every time she looked at him.

"You're...you're an angel!" she finally pushed out.

"I'm  _your_  angel," he replied, giving her a dazzling smile that could very easily outshine the sun.

"But...but...but..." she stuttered out, her shock preventing her from speaking properly. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, it's simple - you need someone to guide you along, so I came down here in order to help you out. I know everything that's been happening for you as of late, and I've got some advice to send you in the right direction."

"Do you?" she asked, leaping out of her seat on the bench.

"Of course I do," he said. "I know everything about you, and I know just what you need to do in order to turn your life right again. It's simple, simpler than you might think..."

"Is it? Is it really?" she asked. It really was a gift sent from heaven - a simple solution to all her problems, maybe even the pink hair issue at the moment...soon it would all be through and she would have nothing more to worry about.

"Oh, yes, it's very simple - you'll be surprised you didn't think of it yourself."

"What is it?"

"Just go back to high school, Sarah! Turn in your teasing comb and your curlers and go get yourself a real diploma."

Even in her awe at having an angel in her presence, Sarah felt her face fall. Of course - he was preaching to her about education, about how what she needed to do was learn in order to succeed in life...she'd learned plenty in all the years she'd already been in school!

"But what if I don't want to?" Sarah said, pouting slightly. "I don't want to go back to Rydell, not with everyone knowing that I couldn't even get past beauty school!"

"With a high school diploma, you could join a stenog pool! But if you stay the way you are right now, all you're going to end up being is a slob. No one wants their hair done by a slob. Trust me."

"A...a slob?" she said, her eyes bulging. "I'm not a slob! I'll never be a slop."

"Oh, but I'm your guardian angel, I know what you're capable of becoming," he replied. "And I know that you don't want that for yourself. That's why I'm here, to prevent all of that from happening. All you have to do is go back to high school. Put my good advice to use."

"Fine!" she sputtered out. "I'll go back to Rydell. Stupid teachers, books, too much homework..."

"But you'll have a good future," the angel reminded her. "Isn't that the most important thing?"

"I guess," Sarah sighed, starting to pout. "Are you sure that it's really going to solve all of my problems and won't just make everything worse for me? Like I said, I already failed beauty school..."

"You know what you have to do," he said, nodding several times. He was still as radiant as ever, even though he'd made Sarah feel less than pleased about everything.

"Yeah, I get it all now..."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to that malt shop in the sky," he said. "Just remember my advice, Miss Sarah."

Sarah nodded a few times and then closed her eyes. She really didn't want to go through the process of switching schools again, especially not to go back to Rydell. But as she opened her eyes, ready to face the world again, the sun seemed to blur in her eyes. All of a sudden a burning pain seared across the back of her head. She looked up to see Andy standing over her, concern wrinkling his face.

"You okay there, Sarah?" Andy asked. "One of the Flaming Dukes came and hit you across the head because he knew you we were with us - but I got him right after that. I promise. No one's going to hurt you, not while I'm around."

"Oh..." Sarah groaned, rubbing the back of her head with her hat still on top. Now everyone would be looking at her bright pink hair if they tried to see the enormous lump that was growing there. Had she really been unconscious the whole time, and the teen angel been just a dream? She'd never even felt the blow that knocked her out...

The rest of the T-Birds were starting to file in, all of them wearing sullen faces. Sarah wanted to ask them what was wrong, assuming that they must've lost the rumble, but none of them seemed to be injured...in fact, the only one who had gotten hurt seemed to be her!

"The Flaming Dukes?" Seb called out. "Those cowards didn't even show up! What're you going on about, Andy?"

Andy's eyes widened and all of the color immediately drained away from his face. Sarah's eyebrows creased in his direction - not only was she perplexed by this reaction, but she also was rather concerned for him. Then again, she was also concerned for herself - her head was really throbbing.

Certainly something must've hit her across the head...but why would Andy have lied about it being the Flaming Dukes? It was possible he was trying to save her from any sort of embarrassment - maybe she'd fallen and hit her head on something and fainted from it.

But that still didn't explain why he'd gone through such a dramatic reaction to such a simple thing - frankly, it didn't make sense to her. But things started to become more clear when she used her own words to try and unearth what had happened.

"If the Flaming Dukes didn't hit me in the back of the head, then what happened?"

"I might've had some trouble trying to carry around a lead pipe..." Andy admitted.

Sarah allowed her eyelids to flutter shut - of course. The guardian angel had all been more or less a dream, and she'd been tricked into believing it was reality. But at the same time, she'd had a realization...she needed to go back to Rydell, as horrible as the rest of the year would probably end up being for her.

"I'm really sorry, Sarah," he blubbered out, cutting through her thoughts.

"It's fine, Andy," she sighed. "But I do have something to tell you."

"Oh?" he replied, his eyes widening.

"Yeah...I'm going to be going back to Rydell soon. Beauty school just isn't working out for me."

In her moment of pain, she completely forgot that she was wearing a hat for a reason and plucked it off her head in order to reach the growing bump from where she'd been hit. Now her pink hair was exposed to everyone, and she didn't even realize it.

Andy's eyes flicked up to her hair for a moment, where Sarah was still rubbing the knot on the back of her head. He had a feeling that the pink hair wasn't intentional, and now he was almost completely sure she'd made a mistake when in beauty school. Maybe that was the reason she was dropping out and going back to high school.

"Hey, er, Sarah..." Andy said slowly. "Any chance you might want to head into the Burger Palace with me and get something? I don't know, maybe a milkshake'll make your head feel better! Sorry about that, again..."

"Yeah, why not?" Sarah said, letting out a slight groan of pain. Then she ran her fingers through her hair one more time and realized that it was out in the open for everyone to see.


	15. Stranded At The Drive-In

Johnny and Shezza were alone together properly for the first time in months - the latter had asked the former out on a date after the dance, and now things were gradually coming into place. They'd made sure to keep it a secret from anyone who might look down on them for it. Anyone who wanted to know where they were heading off to got a completely different story.

The last thing they wanted to do was end up having their limited moments together interrupted by someone who was going to be cruel to them for one reason or another. Besides, there was no point in spending time alone with one another if it wasn't actually spending time alone with one another.

There was only so much the ocassional phone call or limited conversation could do - what their relationship really needed was a proper date with no interruptions. What they needed to do was be alone.

Shezza, as he had won a free pass to the drive in movie from the dance contest, was treating Johnny to a horror flick while the two settled together in the front seat. Perhaps things would move towards the back seat later on, but for now they actually wanted to watch the movie - or at least, that's what he would try to do even though it would probably bore him.

But as Shezza listened to the sounds of werewolves howling and watched what seemed to be endless (but very unrealistic) carnage constantly flashing across the screen, he found his mind wandering to different places. Here was Johnny, right beside him, but things still were far from okay. He could tell just by the aura between them that something was wrong.

He should've known from the moment he'd asked Johnny out. Even though a smile had stretched across Johnny's face, his eyes hadn't lit up anywhere near as much as it had just about every day during the summer. Now the glimmer seemed to be just about completely erased - Johnny was certainly not happy at all.

How did he manage to mess things up so badly between the two of them? There was never a moment since Shezza met Johnny when he felt like he didn't care about him. In fact, it almost felt like he cared too much for him. He'd never realized just how much of a disadvantage caring could be until he'd met John - but at the same time, he didn't ever want to give it up.

When it came to Johnny, everything was different - he didn't know how or why, he just knew that it was. For once in his life, Shezza didn't feel like delving deeper in an attempt to figure out the reasoning behind it. All that he knew is that he wanted Johnny to be happy, because if Johnny was happy then he would be happy too.

He'd have to make an apology. So much of this was his fault, and he needed to take charge of what he'd done. He could do that much at least, right? It certainly wasn't something Sherlock had much experience with, but he would at least try...this was for Johnny, and that meant it was important. He would do this for him, and then everything would turn out okay.

Or at least, that was what he was hoping for.

"Listen, Johnny, I'm awfully sorry about everything that's happened between us...and everything that hasn't happened, too," Shezza began. He'd never really had to experience making a sincere apology before in his life - usually things went the way he planned and no apologies would have to made along the way.

Before Johnny could even begin to craft a response to that, he had to release an enormous sigh from his lungs. This was not the way he wanted things to go, but there really wasn't much he could do. Besides, at least they were finally beginning to work it all out, more or less...but there were still problems around every corner.

"I know, I'm sorry everything's been a mess too," Johnny started to say. He tore his eyes away from the movie screen and looked back towards Shezza. "But, I mean, it feels like so much has changed since the summer..."

"Yeah, things have changed," Shezza agreed. "But we can still make everything work out!"

"I...I'm not so sure of that, Sher...Shezza," Johnny said, shaking his head several times.

The smile playing at Shezza's lips now fell away completely - this was not the way his apology was supposed to go over! "What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"It's just like you'd become an entirely different person once summer ended and school began," Johnny said. "Look - I know we can't come clean about being together because people'll talk. But that isn't an excuse for you to just pretend like we'd never met each other."

"I know, I know," Shezza replied, heaving out an enormous sigh. Even though it was entirely sincere, it was so melodramatic that it seemed like he was faking it and was truly only getting sick of what Johnny had to say.

"Yeah, I get it," continued Johnny. "You know everything. You think you're such a genius, don't you?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant," Shezza quickly said. "I meant that I understand. And I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry about everything."

"There's more to being sorry than just saying you're sorry," Johnny continued. "You can say it as many times as you want, but if you don't mean it then it's just another word coming out of your mouth."

Shezza's mind started turning as he tried to think of what this meant, of what he could possibly do to get through this entire thing without a problem. Surely there was something he could do that would make Johnny happy, that would make his entire apology come across in a truly meaningful way...

Suddenly, an idea leapt into Shezza's mind - he'd been waiting for that to happen for ages. He'd been such a mess, thinking of himself as the genius and all yet having no ideas. Now, however, that was going to change.

"Yeah, I know what you mean...you want to me to say sorry in a different way...without actually saying anything," he said, his voice starting to drop downwards. He started moving towards Johnny slowly, preparing to kiss him.

Johnny, however, wasn't in the mood for kissing or anything that might come after kissing. He wanted a proper apology, not Shezza trying to make everything go away with an embrace. This was not anywhere near an apology - it was just another way for Shezza to gain from everything, whether he realized what he was doing or not.

This, in turn, only made him start heating up in anger. Of course Shezza would think he could just kiss his way through all his problems, as if there were nothing more to it than just trying to win him over with physical attraction. He wouldn't stand for any of that, especially not when he'd been denied a real apology.

Nevertheless, he made sure to keep himself in check. He wanted to show that he could be calm even when faced with a situation filled to the very brim with pressure. He needed to keep himself in check, even though Shezza could not.

"Shezza, no," Johnny said, trying to keep himself from getting too angry. He wanted to remain calm throughout the entire experience - he wasn't about to be the one who let everything all fall apart for one reason or another. Shezza had done his fair share of things wrong, but Johnny didn't want to be the one who made it any worse.

But Shezza kept moving towards him, starting to crawl on top of him, trying to explain in hushed tones that no one actually came to a drive-in movie to watch a movie...he was saying that he was truly sorry, that  _this_  would be the way to make up for it...

"Shezza, no!" Johnny said, this time making sure to inject lots of force into his words. Shezza leaped back, absolutely perplexed by this reaction. This had worked on girls in the past, even Shezza realized later on that he wasn't really  _that_  into girls...why would Johnny be so different?

"This is not a real apology, Shezza," Johnny said, gritting his teeth. He forced himself to make eye contact with Shezza in that moment, trying to get across the idea that what he was doing was horribly wrong and that he needed to stop immediately. "You might think it'll make things better, but it won't."

"What did I do that was so wrong?" Shezza asked, still utterly shocked by the strong reaction he'd recieved from Johnny. He'd truly thought that it would work things out - maybe it wouldn't be the same as talking, but it could certainly work a few things out...

He truly wasn't used to doing anything that had to with apologies or trying to figure out how people were feeling. Usually things would work themselves out, and he'd guessed that he'd been able to do all of that by a few kisses and such.

"I'm going now," Johnny said. "I can't deal with this any longer. This isn't working out for us right now."

"You're not...you're breaking up with me, are you?"

"No, I'm not," Johnny replied. "But I'm not going to sit around here if you simply think you can apologize by kissing me."

In his fury, Johnny slammed the car door. In that same moment, he heard Shezza let out a small yelp. He'd managed to slam the door right on Shezza's fingers - he'd been reaching out for Johnny in order to pull him back and prevent him from leaving, but now he'd managed to get himself hurt in the process.

Shezza yanked his hand back from the door in order to prevent any further damage. While he felt fairly confident nothing had been broken as Johnny had slammed the door, his fingers felt as if they were throbbing and seemed to be a bright red color (it was difficult to tell in the dim lighting conditions, of course).

Now he had physical pain in order to mesh in with the emotional pain he didn't want to admit he was suffering from. Shezza whipped his hand back away from the door, worried that Johnny might end up hurting him even more if he kept his hand in the same area.

Things were continuing to spiral downward as the two stayed in the same area. Johnny immediately noticed this phenomenon and then realized he had to leave. He didn't want to suffer from the situation any longer. Certainly if he stayed around things would only get worse.

"Sorry," Johnny muttered, fighting the urge to help Shezza with this injury that he'd caused. He felt guilty for hurting him physically, but he didn't want to be kind at the moment. He didn't owe anything to Shezza, especially after not what Shezza had been about to do. If anything, he should've left ages ago.

Johnny breathed in and then started walking off. Shezza's eyes started to pop as he watched this - he was just walking right out of a drive-in movie! He was doing the exact opposite of what he was supposed to be doing, and he didn't seem to be looking back at all.

This started really settling in Shezza's mind - he realized just how big of a deal this truly was. He'd done his best to apologize for everything, but it all seemed to make things worse. No matter what he tried, everything seemed to continue being absolutely mad and continued to get worse.

"I said I'm sorry!" called out Shezza, but Johnny was already too far gone to hear a single word that she would say. "I really am sorry, Johnny! And not just because you slammed the door on my hand...please come back."

Johnny had already made up his decision - he was leaving.

Shezza's date had been completely ruined at this point. At least he hadn't tried to get Moriarty to lend him Greased Lightning - that would've made things worse as things went on. He'd have to explain some of what had happened and then found himself getting embarrassed by it as time went on.

He hated that there was no visible solution to everything in sight. If anything, it seemed like everything was going to end up being worse as time went on. Everything was an absolute mess now that Johnny had left him behind and he was sitting alone in the car.

"I'm all alone at the drive-in movie," Shezza murmured to himself, trying to let the idea sink in. "God. I hope no one ever finds out about all of this...what would everyone say at school if they ever found out I got abandoned at the drive-in movie?"

As hard as he tried, Shezza felt perfectly incapable of  _not_  worrying about the future for himself and Johnny. He was hurt over Johnny's reaction and decision to just leave after everything, and it had very little to do with the fact his hand had been physically hurt as Johnny was leaving. Shezza wasn't much of the sort who worried over this or that, but now it felt as if it had all changed.

It was taking all of Shezza's willpower not to slam his hands against the steering wheel of the car and start streaming out a long line of curse words. It wasn't that he was afraid of getting in trouble - he was afraid of allowing his feelings take control of him instead of his mind. That feeling of possibly losing control of himself terrified him to an extent - he didn't like the way it felt, not one bit.

Surely things had to be better than this. Surely things couldn't be so horrible with Johnny that his emotions were taking control of everything. It had been one thing when he'd been attempting to kiss Johnny in order to make an apology, but now everything seemed much worse. Even the air around him felt colder, as if it were reacting to the negative things he was currently experiencing because of Johnny.

Shezza was nothing short of miserable at the moment, and all of it was because of Johnny. He hated having to go through all of these emotions - he was used to not having to experience any emotions to begin with. Usually he could just toss them aside and access them only when it felt useful to him.

But with Johnny he couldn't control himself. Perhaps it had something to do with being in love with him. Shezza would take that as an answer, but it wouldn't make him any happier about it. It seemed like a defect to care so much, like there was some chemical imbalance that was causing his entirety to go awry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The songs for this chapter are "Alone at the Drive-In Movie" from the stage version of Grease, and "Sandy" from the movie version of Grease.


	16. Don't Call It Puppy Love

The T-Birds and Pink Ladies were the sorts who could pull a party out of thin air of they just wanted a reason to hang out with one another. This party, while not particularly exciting or rowdy, was certainly entertaining. There was dancing and singing, and of course plenty of snacks - it was everything a group of teenagers could ever want.

Molly loved to have all of the parties at her house - her parents never really had much of a problem with her having people over and they typically left them alone no matter what was going on. That meant that they could have a fun party without too much worry.

She didn't even really have to worry about planning anything, either. All she really had to do was turn on the record player and soon everyone would be filled with glee. The biggest issue for her had to be providing the snacks, but only because she tended to eat the majority of them herself and often didn't have enough left for everyone else.

But at the moment, Molly wasn't worrying about what was going on with the snacks. Instead she simply allowed herself to bask inside of the energy that had risen from everyone at the party. That, of course, was her most favorite part of it all. She could feed off of the happiness that everyone else was giving off and then project it back out again.

The one thing that was stopping her from feeling entirely comfortable at the moment was the fact one of the most important people was missing - Shezza Holmes hadn't shown up, even though he'd most certainly been invited. As far as she knew, there was no reason for him to skip the party...so then where was he?

As Molly started to think through everything, she started looking around the room for things that could help her to remain positive throughout everything. She wasn't about to let herself go entirely into despair just because one person was missing - after all, if she'd pegged down anyone to miss the party, she would've thought Johnny wouldn't have shown up.

She glanced over to see that Sarah and Andy were dancing together. Both seemed to be having fun, but Andy was flushing a very violent shade of red. She nearly rolled her eyes at this sight - even she didn't blush that much when she was in a situation where she was near someone she liked! (In fact, Molly's problems were deeper rooted in being unable to get her thoughts out through her words).

It was clear to Molly (and to just about everyone else as well) that Sarah definitely liked Andy. He just seemed unable to realize that this was the case as he was too busy basking within his obsession with the girl currently right in front of him. He just couldn't believe it could possibly be true.

But of course, everything was coming into place as he stood there, dancing along with Sarah (who had managed to get rid of her pink hair, somehow). One day he would realized just how well everything was turning out for him and he wouldn't seem so shocked anymore. However, Molly would much rather watch his journey as he figured it all out or himself.

Molly adored romance more than she would every care to admit to anyone - she loved all of the love in romantic movies she was able to see at the drive in movies...and she loved it even more romance started coming in to her own life. She started drifting away and thinking more and more about this particular thing, but then she realized there was someone standing above her.

Molly glanced upwards to realize that Greg was gesturing for her to get up. At first, this perplexed her - couldn't he see that she was sort of busy, basking within all of her own little thought? But then he continued doing the motion and she finall got up. As she moved over to him, she started to figure out what was going on.

"Hey, Molly," he said. "I was wondering if you could dance with me to this song. Rock N' Roll Party Queen - it's one of your favorites, right?"

"Yes, yes it is!" she nearly squeaked out. "How did you know?"

"Does it matter?" he asked. "I think we should just go ahead and dance."

An enormous smile grew across Molly's lips - there weren't going to be any problems as things went on with the one of them, she felt sure of it. A few moments later, the two were dancing their hearts out to the song, dancing with one another without a hitch.

But even though so many problems appeared to have been solved, there was one that was quickly becoming the most dominant throughout the entire room. All of the positive energy that had spread all across the room was starting to be destroyed as the one major problem continued to expand as time went on.

No one would dare to say anything directly about the issue at hand, as no one wanted to be the one to get on anyone's bad side. Nevertheless, it was impossible to ignore the way that all of the conversation was fading away and all of the dancing seemed to be rather halfhearted as things continued. Until the problem was taken away, nothing could be done full out.

Adler was acting strange, and when Adler was acting strange everyone noticed. She always had a secret wrapped up with her, but typically she used that to create an enigmatic aura around her. On this particular day, however, it seemed like she had a secret that would potentially end up ruining her. Her eyes darted around the room as if she suspected others of knowing what was going on.

Despite of this, no one had any clue what was going on with her, only that it was taking its toll on the rest of the party. Almost no one wanted to go ahead to find out what was wrong with her - even Seb stayed in the corner, not wanting to rile Adler up.

However, there was one single person who felt she could tackle the situation of finding out what was going on with Adler. No one else would even dare to approach her at the current moment, but Anthea knew she was going to get to the bottom of it all.

"Hey, Adler," Anthea said, tilting her head slightly as she looked towards the other Pink Lady. The two were alike enough that they often ended up sharing secrets. "What's up with you?"

"I don't know what to tell you, Anthea," Adler sighed. "But I'll tell you what I can."

In hushed tones, she explained a few things that didn't seem to make sense for the amount of misery she was experiencing, but Anthea decided not to push any further. Instead she joined everyone else on the floor - all of the dancing had stopped, and now eeryone was sitting down. That is, everyone except Adler.

Everyone spoke for several minutes, trying not to be all too loud as if their voices might end up disrupting Adler and what she was thinking about. Nevertheless, they all wanted to make sure the party just kept on going as well as they could possibly allow. However, this ended up being the perfect place for rumors to emerge and grow.

"Oh my God, Adler, you're pregnant?" Molly burst out, unable to keep it inside. Once she realized just how rude it was she clapped a hand over her mouth, but the people who hadn't managed to hear the rumor quite yet were immediately alerted to what was going on.

All eyes immediately shot towards Adler, even those of the people who weren't necessarily used to prying into other people's lives. This was just far too interesting to miss! There was so much scandal involved, and it seemed so strange that somewhat as collected as Adler would've gotten herself pregnant. There had to be one hell of a story behind her current condition.

It could make sense, though - she was acting so weird, and seemed to be more emotional than she typically was. Certainly she wouldn't have wanted anyone to find out about it as things went onwards...so with that, everyone decided that Adler was pregnant. It was the only explanation they knew of to explain her strange behavior.

"So you're pregnant, huh?" Moriarty asked, tilting his head to the side as he approached Adler. She stood her ground but remained perfectly silent. He kept getting closer and closer, but she didn't crack. Just about anyone else would've been terrified at that moment with Moriarty's eyes fixated right on them.

"What's it to you, Moriarty?" snapped Adler. Everyone found themselves becoming entirely silent as they fixated on the two, wanting to know what exactly was about to happen next. This was incredibly fascinating, but also terrifying at the same time. These were two very dangerous people, and both seemed volatile at the moment.

"Nothing, I just wanted to know what was going on. Sounds like the kind of thing you might've wanted to tell me, right?"

"I don't have to tell you anything," Adler said with a scoff, pushing him away. There was an audible gasp from one of the other Pink Ladies (she didn't bother to figure out who it came from). "Listen, Moriarty, you don't own me. You don't get to control anything about me - if I don't want to tell you about something, then I won't."

"Fine then. I'll keep that in mind, Adler," he hissed back. He turned on his heel and then began to storm away from her. He continued that way until he met the door, which he opened with as much force as he could muster. Everyone continued to stand there wordlessly until he gestured to other T-Birds that they needed to come along as well.

Greg and Seb burst out of their seats to follow behind him, Andy several seconds late. He ended up getting to the door right as it was slammed closed, so he had to open it up himself with a very awkward movement. Nevertheless, no eyes were fixed on him. Everyone else still wanted to see what Adler was going to do, especially now that the T-Birds were leaving.

She remained absolutely still, although under certain lighting you could see tears starting to well up in her eyes. They glimmered slightly as she moved, but no one dared to say a single thing about it. No one had ever seen Adler cry, and no one was quite sure they would want to experience what would happen afterwards.

They knew she would more than likely end up snapping at them simply for watching her as she broke down, blaming them for something that was out of their control. But at the same time, they'd never seen anything like this in front of them. Their sympathies reached out as well as their interest, keeping them more or less rooted into place.

"Adler," Anthea said, moving towards her friend. "Listen to me. I know you didn't tell me you were pregnant, and I didn't say that you were. But I wish you had told me...even though I know why you wouldn't want me to tell you."

"It's not up to you to decide what I tell you," Adler replied, being as cold as she possibly manage. Anthea was used to less than friendly behavior, but this was out of hand.

"Fine, then," Anthea said. "I'll just be heading out, then, as you don't want to listen a single thing I say. Keep in mind you're not the only with problems around here."

There was another period of silence as Anthea turned around and stormed out the door in more or less of the same manner as Moriarty. Nevertheless, there were still a few people left who felt they could help Adler in some way.

"Oh, Adler, it's not so bad!" Sarah said, moving up to take her turn at trying to figure out what was happening. "At least you get to miss school! Think of that - no more school for the rest of the year. I mean, there's all sorts of other things, but..."

"I don't give a damn about school," Adler pushed out through gritted teeth. Sarah blinked a few times, wondering if she should continue trying to explain some of the better things that could help Adler through any of these hard times.

But she ended up deciding that she didn't have anything more to say about the topic - she was leaving the party, just as everyone else before her had. She felt somewhat sad that this all had to be the case, but she didn't know what else to do about it all. Instead, she'd be much better leaving. It was getting late, anyways.

Now the room was almost completely barren - Molly remained simply because she lived there, of course. She couldn't leave, no matter how strange and awkward the situation became all around her.

"If you need anything, Adler, you can ask me," Molly said, reaching out to touch her arm. Adler pulled away almost immediately. Molly was taken aback by this small but striking gesture and began to walk out of the room just like all of the others.

A frown pressed the edges of her lips down - she absolutely loathed situations like these. The fact that it was all taking place within her house only made it all worse. She couldn't escape from it because it was all happening inside her very own living room. It would just keep going on right there, and she couldn't stop it.

She let out a small sigh as she continued walking - the party had been the biggest flop to ever exist, and it felt like it was entirely her fault.

"Oh, and if you need to stay over for the night, I'm sure my parents won't mind," Molly added in - but of course, she was already halfway out of the room. Besides, Adler more or less ignored her - she didn't want to listen to any charity than anyone had to offer or anything else they might say.

Only one person aside from Adler remained in the room, unsure of what to do or say. Johnny, always more or less the outcast when it came to the Pink Ladies and T-Birds, sat on a couch behind Adler. He didn't want to leave yet - he felt as if he couldn't leave yet.

There was something that needed to be done, Johnny felt sure of that. He was sitting in absolute silence as he attempted to figure out exactly what it was, but all of that seemed to be rather more difficult than he'd been anticipating. The only thing he felt certain of was that he needed to stay and help Adler, somehow...he had to be capable of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's song is "Rock N' Roll Party Queen," which I believe is featured only in the stage version.


	17. Hurt Someone Like Me

Johnny sat there awkwardly for several moments, trying to sort through his thoughts. Was he breathing too loud? Did Adler even know he was still there? Should he just go and pretend like he hadn't seen anything, heard nothing? Maybe he should try to be kind towards Adler in her time of need.

She'd never been particularly kind to him about anything, but he'd learned fairly quickly that was just the way she was about everyone. Of course, there had been the one time she'd been making fun of him in the park...but that wasn't an excuse for him to hate her, especially not when she was going through something as difficult as being pregnant.

Johnny had watched his younger sister go through all sorts of problems throughout her life, and he tended to think that he was rather good with dealing with issues because of all the practice he'd gotten with Harry. Now, however, he was starting to think otherwise.

But he needed to say something to Adler, even if it wasn't anything that could be all that helpful. There had to be something within his mind that could be even a tiny amount of good towards her. It was just what he felt he needed to do, being the person that he was.

Johnny cleared his throat in order to get her attention. She whipped around on him and he had a flash of regret for deciding to go through with this.

"Do you...do you need a tissue?" he pushed out, already realizing he'd chosen the wrong words to speak to her. "I mean, I don't have a tissue...all I have is this napkin here, but...that could work."

"And why would you think that I need a tissue?" Adler barked.

"Well, I, uh..." Johnny stuttered, struggling to get something out of his mouth. There had to be something that he could say to her, to explain what was going within her mind and get it all through with.

"Yes?" Adler prompted.

"I thought that you might need a tissue, or rather a napkin, because you seem kind of upset about...well, you know what I mean..."

"Actually, I don't know," Adler said, a challenging tone creeping into her voice. "Why don't you go ahead and explain it to me."

"Well, you're...you're pregnant. You're upset about being pregnant. That's why you turned everyone away."

"Oh, Johnny. Johnny boy," she said. "I don't think you understand a thing about me."

"I understand that you're pregnant," Johnny said, replying as firmly as he possibly could. "I understand that you're not happy about it, either."

"Like I said, you understand nothing," Adler replied, her voice nearly reaching a growl. "You and Shezza, prancing around like you think you understand it all - but you don't. You never do."

"I'm sorry," Johnny said, starting to get somewhat frustrated. He was only trying to be nice towards Adler and help her out, but she was pushing back away from him as much as she possibly could. "I'm just trying to help you out. I know you've turned down everyone else, but...maybe I'm different."

"I know, I know, I know," Adler mocked. "And why would you think you're different? What would possibly make you think that?"

"I've noticed that I don't fit in here, and I know that no one really likes me all that much," Johnny said. "I know quite a lot, actually."

"Come on, if you know so much, tell me this - where's Shezza? He's not here. You act like you've got it all figured out, but I know you don't."

"I really am sorry, Adler," he said. "And I don't want to make this worse for you, but..."

"But what?"

"But I think that you need to just let people in. You're going to need people to help you if you're having a baby - you're not going to be able to make it through all of this unless you let your friends help you."

"My friends can't help me. And when did I ever say I was having a baby?" Adler asked, starting to sound slightly like she was hissing towards Johnny once again.

"Well, I thought..." Johnny started to stutter out.

"Well, you thought wrong," Adler snapped in reponse.

"Then...what's going on?"

"There are worse things I could do than go with a girl. Or two. Or many," Adler stated, admiring her nails instead of looking directly towards Johnny.

Johnny blinked a few times, running over her words several times over in his head just to make sure he'd processed them correctly. If he spoke and found he had misinterpreted her meaning, he would end up feeling utterly horrible about himself and what he'd done. He would much rather avoid such a thing if possible.

"So you...you don't like boys, then," Johnny said, trying out the words on his tongue and finding them to be very heavy and strange to push out with the possibilty of being wrong so prevalent. "You'd much rather be with other girls."

"You're right," she said. "Funny how people seem to think it's one of the most scandalous things out there...getting yourself pregnant out of wedlock is almost as scandalous, you know."

"But...if it's so scandalous, then why are you telling me?" Johnny asked, his brows creasing. "I mean, you don't even like me all that much, I can tell..."

"Who do I like?" Adler scoffed. "Anyways, that's not important. What is it important is that you'd rather be with other boys than girls. I'm right, yeah?"

"Wh-what?" Johnny stuttered.

"Oh, come on - you and Shezza were together over the summer. You liked Sarah, but never the way you liked Shezza."

At first, Johnny tried to think of ways he could deny her. He didn't want to think that someone knew about him and Shezza, and he didn't know how she could've possibly figured it out. If he confessed, then there was a chance everything had been a bluff and Adler would use the information for her own good.

But, then again...how did she know about summer? How could she have possibly known that Johnny and Shezza had been together throughout the hottest part of the year and then hit plenty of bumps in the road once it came to going back to school? As far as he knew, he had never mentioned it to anyone...and Shezza never would've said anything, either. It could ruin his reputation.

Adler had some major explaining to do for Johnny - he couldn't help but try to figure it out.

"Wait...wait, wait, wait," Johnny said, unable to prevent himself from babbling as things continued. "How did you know that Shezza and I were...I guess, are...together?"

"I see the way you two look at one another. This is only the whipped cream on top of the milkshake for me, Johnny boy. I'm not that surprised that you're not that surprised about me. But you  _are_  surprised by the fact I know about you two..."

"I guess we couldn't hide it as well as we thought..."

"Then there you go," Adler said, throwing her hands up into the air. "You admit it yourself. And it's not so bad, is it? You like boys, I like girls - it's no different than boys liking girls and vice versa."

"It's not bad," Johnny sputtered out, unsure if his words were coming out correctly. "It's not bad at all. In fact, it's pretty great. There's...there's nothing wrong with all of it. It's not different, you're right."

"Then you don't have to judge me about this any more. Don't even think about trying to judge me about all of this, Johnny boy...I know how difficult it is, but don't you dare."

Johnny opened his mouth, but then decided that he needed to put even more thought into his words before he went any further. Otherwise, he might end up finding that he was going to do precisely what Adler had just asked him not to do.

It was so difficult for him to make the distinction between what was simply thinking about Adler and trying to decipher what was going on instead of judging her for what was going on. He cycled around his thoughts several times around, trying to figure out what was the right thing to say. He did not want to mess this up.

"I don't understand why you're suddenly so upset about everything," Johnny said, his eyebrows creasing. He was honestly rather concerned for why Adler seemed to be so worked up all of this situation - certainly there had something far more wrong than just being a lesbian. Besides, that wasn't any problem to begin with...

"What do you mean by that?" Adler asked, stepping towards him. "You're saying that you think I'm upset. Why do you think I'm upset?"

"Well...you're angry. You're very angry right now. But...er..." Johnny took a few moments to balance out his options, see if he should possibly say what he was thinking to say next. "You have tears in your eyes. They're gleaming."

"It's that obvious, is it?" Adler replied dryly.

"But that still doesn't explain why you're upset to begin with," Johnny said, starting to bite his lip. "I don't know what the problem is."

"The problem is that I have clients, Johnny. I know you'll think less of me for it, but honestly - it's not like I'm trying to wait for Mister - or Miss - Right to come along and swoop me off my feet. I could just waste my life away, taking cold showers and staring out for someone to save me."

"Clients?" Johnny repeated, rather blankly.

"Yes, clients. Women who pay me to be with them. It's simple, really - people like to think it's only for women who have sunk to the bottom of the heap, but I'm making plenty of money doing something I enjoy."

Johnny tried to let this sink in - it seemed bizarre that Adler was actually more or less a courtesan, and a courtesan for other girls at that. The more he thought about it, though, the more it all made sense...all of those times she'd snuck away from this and that, the way she was always around Moriarty but they never seemed to have any romantic contact.

Of course that had been what was happening the whole time.

Johnny's realization must have been clear on his face, as Adler started shaking her head several times in his direction. This was the way it was always bound to turn out, of course, and now he was finally beginning to understand what was going on. He would never completely understand what she was going through - but it was much farther along than most other people.

"See, you're starting to get it," Adler said. "Everyone just assumes that it's so complicated, but it's not. If only people would just listen."

"I guess I'm good at listening," Johnny mumbled to himself.

"The thing is that I always make sure to have a camera - you take a few pictures of each session and then they can't hold anything over you. The problem is that several of those pictures have gone missing...along with my camera."

"Well, can't you just get another camera?"

"Get another camera," she scoffed. "It's not the camera that I'm worried about. It's those pictures - those damn pictures are my lifeline! Without them, I might as well have a gun pointed at my head."

"That seems like a bit much..." John said, but his voice came out extremely softly.

"You really don't understand a thing about this!" she exclaimed, trying to keep herself from laughing as at the current moment she believed it would end up sounding more like she was choking on something. "Here I am, telling you everything about my life, thinking that you might get it. But you don't, you obviously don't have a clue!"

"I'm trying as hard as I can," Johnny said. "It's just...it's a lot for me to process, okay? Just be glad that I've been listening to begin with. Please. Come on."

"I've told you everything," Adler said, starting to breathe more and more heavily. She'd just given away all of her secrets to Johnny just to find that he couldn't possibly understand.

"I've listened to it all," Johnny replied. "I just...I just don't know, yet."

He was starting to let the situation process in his mind, and the more he thought about it the stranger it seemed. Johnny couldn't even trust himself to open his mouth, afraid that something he would regret saying would end up spilling right out. Instead he looked over towards Adler, trying to remain with a neutral face. Unfortunately, it became clear that his thoughts were being projected on his features.

"Don't give me that look," hissed Adler. "I get it. I'm not pure. I'm not all good. But damn it - everyone knows that. This doesn't change any of that. And think about it - who am I really hurting by all of this? Think about it, Johnny boy."

Johnny felt like he needed to say something more - perhaps to defend himself, perhaps to comfort Adler, perhaps just to have something to say - but instead he remained silent and followed Adler's directions. He thought about the matter at hand with her. He thought about who it could possibly hurt.

All in all, Adler was right. No one would be hurt by it.

Yes, Johnny had been judging her throughout every last word that she had said to him, but now he was realizing how right she was. He didn't have the authority to judge her about anything, especially not about anything he'd just been told.

And at the end of the day, she wasn't causing any harm to anyone else. She could be rude and cruel to others, full of herself and whatever she wanted for herself, but her choices weren't causing any harm to anyone else. It had taken Johnny far too long to realize that, he understood that now.

"I do what I can to get myself through every last day at Rydell and outside of Rydell, but there's still so much I can't control - and when things get bad, they get really bad. I never thought I would stoop so low, become so desperate that I...that I..."

"That you what?" Johnny asked softly, not wanting to send her flaring all over the place. She seemed so close to a breaking point that all he really wanted to do was help her out with it all.

"It doesn't matter. But what does matter is what I'm doing right now. I mean, look at me - I'm telling you all of this right now.  _You._  Purest kid on the block. And you must realize there are worse things that I can do - like I could cry. I could cry in front of you, right now. That is the very worst thing I could ever do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is the eleven o'clock number from all versions of Grease, "There Are Worse Things I Could Do."


	18. There's Just One Of Me

"Gosh, Johnny!" Harriet said, standing in the doorway of his bedroom. "What has been up with you? Did something happen at that party that you just went to?"

"Aren't you supposed to be asleep right now?" Johnny asked, raising his gaze up to her. He felt very strange after what he'd just experienced with Adler, and he wanted some time alone to think about it. But he knew just how persistent his younger sister could be.

"Actually, I'm not supposed to be asleep right now," she said, bouncing on her heels. "It's a Friday night, remember? There's no school tomorrow, so no one really cares about when I go to sleep. Except for you, apparently."

"Why don't you just go to sleep? You must've had a long week at school."

"And so did you!" she pressed. "Come on, Johnny, just tell me what's going on with you! It's not like I'm going to rat on you to Mom and Dad if anything happened. I just want to know what's happening, that's all!"

"Leave me alone, Harry," he said, rolling his eyes.

Harriet's eyes, however, started growing in size. "You called me Harry."

"I did..." Johnny said, unsure of what the deal was with his little sister at the moment. "What's so special about that?"

"No one's called me Harry, even though I've been trying to make everyone call me that..."

"Well, I'll stop calling you Harry if you hang around here any longer," Johnny said.

Harry shook her head and said, "You really are upset about something. But fine. You better hold up your side of this deal right now, Johnny."

Johnny considered what his options were - there really wasn't all that much he could do, but he had to throw off Harry somehow. If he just went along and explained what he'd just been through with Adler, things could not possibly turn out well.

Besides, Johnny wasn't exactly at liberty to spill anything that Adler had jut confided in him with. He'd also have to explain why Adler had decided to trust him at all to begin with - Harry might end up getting curious and want to figure out what was behind all of that.

"Here's what's going on," Johnny began. "There's a girl at the party I went to that might be having a baby. She was really upset about it, and her mood just kind of stuck on me. That's all that's been happening, you see."

This half lie was enough to satisfy Harry for the moment. She let out an enormous gasp, absolutely shocked of what was going on. She wanted to pry and figure out who the girl was and all, but Johnny seemed perfectly unwilling to divulge any more information towards her. With a sigh, she started off to go on about her own business.

Johnny let out an incredible breath that was on the very edge of turning into an incredible sigh. Yes, he'd managed to get Harry off of his case for a little while longer. She likely wouldn't start pestering him until the morning. But he had plenty of his own problems to worry about, of course.

Now that he was alone, just as he'd wanted to be, he started delving deeper and deeper into his own thoughts. They were all there, waiting for him to come and examine them all over again. He needed to go ahead and do something immediately.

Oh, he was  _so_  in love with Shezza. Even though they'd been through far more bumps on the road than either would like to acknowledge, they were still moving forwards with everything. But who knew how much longer that would last? If it continued in the same manner, then they'd only end up in an enormous disaster.

That was, by far, one of the worst things John could imagine happening. He never wanted to even imagine Shezza leaving him behind for any reason, especially not if he would potentially be able to stop it from occurring. He felt as if they needed to be together for as long as they possibly could be.

Imagining Shezza leaving him for any reason made him feel nervous, nervous that those thoughts might end up forming themselves into a reality in front of him. But at the same time, he reminded himself that he'd almost made it into a reality with his own actions.

He'd left Shezza behind once, right as he was trying to apologize. Of course, the apology had been absolutely horrible...but it was still something Johnny was beginning to feel guilty about as things went onwards.

Maybe storming out on their date had been a mistake...but no, Shezza had been trying to go too far too quickly. He was trying to make up for all the bad things by kissing, and Johnny wouldn't let that happen. Just because the T-Bird didn't know how to form a proper apology didn't mean he was excused from making one.

Shezza tended to think that he was above the rules and such, but Johnny wasn't about to let him get away with that any more. Nevertheless, that didn't change any of his feelings towards him. He was still as dewy eyed as he'd ever been.

No matter what Shezza got up to, Johnny couldn't help but feel attracted to him all over again as if they were meeting for the first time and falling for one another. It was like they were meant to be together, destined in a way that they or no one else could ever possibly understand. He wished that they could fulfill that attraction, but he wasn't sure.

He wanted to blame the world for keeping them apart - there were so many forces that were ripping them away from one another and so few that were truly working to push them together, despite how they seemed made for one another. One of the things that bothered him the most was the fact that people might not understand why two boys were together.

Adler had been so straightforward when it came to explaining she was far more interested in girls than she would be in any guy - she had no shame in any of it. She'd also known what was going on between him and Shezza, even though he felt confident neither of them had ever said anything about it.

She felt pain, that much was definite, as she felt everything else. Yet somehow she'd managed to forge her own path even if it had quite a few rough patches along the way. With her camera and photos missing, she was in a difficult time. It was sort of like Johnny and Shezza - they were on a rough patch as well.

Ever since the summer had ended, their easy thrill of a relationship had ended as well. Johnny couldn't help but think if he had gone to St. Bartholomew's things might've actually been better between the two of them. They might've had an estranged relationship due to being farther apart, but at least they'd never gone through the strain of going to Rydell with one another.

No matter what they'd experienced with one another, however, they'd always managed to reconnect. Those reconnections hadn't been the best ones, yes, but they always managed to get back together in the end. Johnny took that as a sign that they were meant to continue being together, no matter how much they had been through as time went on.

Nevertheless, things seemed to continue getting worse and worse as time went on. It had been a false alarm that things were going better when they went out with one another to the drive in movie. They'd only ended up in an argument that could've ended up ruining everything. They were still more or less together, but not in the way either wanted.

Johnny needed to make a change - a major one, too. Going about life the way he had been for such a long time evidently wasn't working out. The world was always changing around him, so he might as well change along with it.

He didn't have to change everything about himself - people cared about him the way he was. But he certainly wanted to do something completely different, to send himself on a different track before everything fell completely apart in front of his very eyes.

But what he would do would end up changing the way the rest of his life turned out - that was, considering that it stuck. This wasn't meant to just be a temporary fix, it was supposed to be a permanent overhaul. Yes, the thought of it was somewhat daunting, but he didn't mind. He would just have to make sure it all worked out.

What he needed, truly, was someone to help him out. Trying to do it all alone could end up with him in disaster, and this was the one time he felt disaster could not possibly be the case for him. This needed to work.

With this thought consuming him, he went to his phone and dialed a familiar number, one that he hadn't called in what felt like ages.

"Sarah?" he asked, immediately swallowing a few moments later. He decided to pretend he was swallowing back of his qualms about moving forwards with his idea. Maybe he'd never be able to break through the barrier if he didn't built up momentum first - he might not be able to stop once he'd gotten started, but perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing.

"Johnny, is that you?" said Sarah from the other end of the line. "Why're you calling me right now?"

She sounded suspicious (and rightfully so, he supposed - their break up hadn't been the cleanest thing even if it did feel like a lifetime ago).

"Yeah, it's me - it's Johnny," he said. "Sorry that I haven't really called you a long time. Things have always been kind of strange, yeah?"

"Yeah, they've been real strange," Sarah replied, apprehension leaking into her voice. She probably suspected Johnny of being drunk or having a very deep ulterior motive for calling her. With how he'd been speaking so far, it certainly didn't seem to be out of the question. He wouldn't have called her without a major reason why.

"I have to apologize for all of that, really," Johnny said, releasing a sigh. "Things have gotten all messed up and I've never really been able to give you an apology for everything I've done."

"Don't worry too much about it," Sarah replied. "I mean, things have been turning out fairly well for me, even though you haven't apologized. But I forgive you. Let's just move past it all."

"I have a favor to ask you," Johnny said. "I know we never really got to patch up everything up the way we wanted to, but..."

"It's fine," Sarah said. "I don't mind. What do you need, Johnny?"

Johnny had to heave out an enormous sigh before he could properly continue with asking his favor. It was certainly one of the strangest he'd ever asked, and now it was beginning to become even more difficult to push out now that he was actually in the process of trying to ask it. It would seem so strange coming out of his mouth...

But he wanted to do this. He wanted to do this for his sake, for the sake of his future with Shezza. He was doing this for love, and as cliche and cheesy as it did seem, he wouldn't give up on it. All he needed to do was figure out the right wording in order to make this work out as well as he possibly could.

Sarah certainly would understand - she was very kind, very sweet. When they'd been more or less together as a couple, that alone had been crystalline clear to him. It would work out perfectly well as long as he allowed it to. He just needed to convince her of what he was doing, ask for his favor in the right way...it would be difficult, yes, but nowhere near impossible.

"Listen - I'm not the best with clothes. I'm not going to lie about it. But I think you're pretty good at it..."

"Oh, okay...thank you, I suppose..." Sarah mumbled over the phone line. There were several moments of completely dead air as John tried to collect something more to say that could properly explain what was going on. He knew that this was completely and utterly what he wanted to do, but now actually getting himself to do it seemed to be the biggest obstacle.

He could do this. This was just the first step, and that tended to be the hardest one. He needed to speak up and ask her, otherwise he'd likely chicken out and never find a way to guide his own fate. All he had to do was go ahead and ask it properly, before he allowed everything else to escape from him.

"That has to do with the favor," Johnny said, trying to figure out how he was supposed to go along with this entire thing. "I need help with clothes. I can't really do it all on my own, and I thought that you could be helpful with me."

"You're welcome. I guess," Sarah said. Apprehension was leaking into her voice, but Johnny still had her attention. As long as they continued talking to one another, he would be able to find a way to convince her to help him out with everything. He felt confident he could work it all out.

"Can I come over to your house in a few minutes?" he asked. "It's a...er...clothes thing."

"Sure," Sarah replied. "I mean, whatever you want. I don't really know what you're talking about, but..."

Johnny gathered all of his courage and his entire plan. Then he allowed himself to explain everything he'd come up with as of late, trying to see if he could make things clearer by giving Sarah all of the information he possibly could.

"Oh my goodness, Johnny!" she exclaimed - unfortunately, it was impossible to tell if she liked the idea or not from her tone of voice.

"Is it a good idea? Do you think it'll work?"

"Do I think it'll work? I know it'll work, Johnny! Best idea I've heard in ages."

"You do?" Johnny said, letting a happy laugh leak out into his voice.

"Of course I do," Sarah said, nearly squealing. "No one else ever could've thought of it, and that's what makes it so wonderful. I'll definitely help you out with that - oh, my goodness. I can't get over this."

Johnny held the phone up against his ear for a while longer, but didn't say much. Instead, he let his lips continue to curl into an enormous grin. This was all going to work out wonderfully - Sarah seemed to be positive of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" reprise...which I believe is only in the stage version! But don't take my word for that.


	19. And My Heart Is Set On You

No one wanted to mention the events of the recent party that they'd all gone to at Molly's house as all the Pink Ladies and T-Birds gathered at the Burger Palace. Conversation went on as usual, but it seemed somewhat less energetic than normal. Almost everyone was there - Sarah was missing, and although Shezza and Adler were the only ones to notice, so was Johnny.

Shezza was glad to be back around his friends - they were all willing to invite him right back into the festivities and all, but he knew he'd missed quite a bit. He'd heard the rumor about Adler, and he missed the presence of Johnny. But as he tucked into his fries, he found himself distracted by a girl running in through the front door.

"Quiet, you guys!" Sarah cried out, reaching out her arms and gesturing downwards to show that she wanted everyone to reduce the volumes of their voices.

"Hey, Sarah," Greg called out, raising an arm up into the air. "What's going on with you right now?"

"Be quiet, Greg!" she replied, widening her eyes in his direction.

"Yeah, Greg, be quiet," Andy echoed. But the moment Greg turned to glare at him and show who was boss, he ended up shrinking away and looking down towards the ground. All he wanted to do was help out Sarah, but that ultimately ended up failing in the end. He decided to just look away and pretend like he'd said nothing, making sure that he didn't end up pushing the situation any further.

Her eyes flitted around to every face as if she was making sure that everyone she knew was sitting in that room at the time. She decided that everyone who needed to be there was there, and a smile started growing across her face. Nevertheless, she felt upset that people weren't listening to her. She needed everyone to stop talking and focus on something else.

"Seriously, everyone!" Sarah called out. "Be quiet, be quiet!" She glanced back towards the door, as if checking on something behind her. When she decided everything was satisfactory, she started nodding towards the door and gesturing to someone outside. She then stepped off to the side, a huge smile curling up her lips.

Oh, this was not going to be what anyone was expecting - and that made it all the better. She knew the big secret that was hiding behind the doors, and that made her feel as if she held something above all of the others. But within a few moments, everything would come together better than anyone could possibly imagine.

She'd been included in one of the best plans she'd ever heard of in her entire life, and that alone was enough to make a warm feeling rise up in her stomach and make her feel as if she was glowing. Nevertheless, she made sure to step aside for the main event - she'd only been a small part of it all.

The door of the Burger Palace opened up once again, the sound of shoes clicking against the ground as someone walked their way into the middle of the floor, every last set of eyes focused on them.

"Is that Johnny?" Seb bellowed out, unable to keep himself from yelling. But once he burst out with those few words, everyone else lowered the volume down to absolute silence. Several jaws actually dropped straight towards the floor as if being yanked down by a rope.

It had to be Johnny - everyone was sure of it, and yet...it seemed utterly impossible. Everything about him had changed in more or less of an instant.

It certainly didn't look like the Johnny Watson everyone knew of - but unless he had an identical twin, it definitely had to be him. Instead of sweaters and cozy sorts of things, he was dressed entirely in leather.

Johnny hadn't selected just any leather, either - he'd put time and effort into finding the most attractive things he could get his hands on. Of course, he'd gotten quite a bit of help from Sarah and he was very thankful for that. But at the same time, this had more or less been his idea and he'd been the majority of effort into doing it all.

This was the big change that he needed in his life in order to turn everything around. All of the struggles he'd been experiencing throughout everything would soon be at a close, he felt sure of it. Changing his clothes and his attitude wasn't going to be a miracle cure for everything, but it certainly was going to change quite a bit.

For Johnny, this had been a massive change. But now that he was seeing all the reactions of everyone in front of him, he was starting to feel more and more comfortable with what he'd done. He was completely and utterly successful thus far. Now it was time to make sure everything else would work out properly.

The moment he made eye contact with Shezza, the two shared a moment of silent communication just through their gazes. They weren't going to hide their relationship any longer (which Shezza was especially happy about simply because of the way Johnny looked in those new clothes). He'd always considered Johnny to be very attractive, but this more than he ever could've dreamed of.

Then he reminded himself that he needed to do something more than stare at Johnny. After all, he'd made such a big slash in the Burger Palace. Now it was time for Shezza to make his move. It was almost as if they were playing a game with chess with one another, except in this there was no loser. Everything just built up to make everything better.

Running his fingers back through his hair, Shezza started making his way straight towards Johnny. There wasn't anything holding him back now. The moment he'd been waiting for, the one where everything fell into place, was approaching quickly. As soon as he got to Johnny, it would arrive.

Time seemed to be slowing down as Shezza approached Johnny, both of them maintaining their eye contact. Not a single word had to be spoken between them as they both knew exactly what the other was thinking - they might as well had been coversing aloud, as it got the message across just as well. Their connection was just that strong.

But when they were finally right next to one another, standing facing one another far closer than anyone else had seen them be before, Shezza reached his hand down to touch Johnny's cheek and pull himself even closer to him. Before long, they were kissing.

At first, there was a moment of stunned silence.

Then it exploded into the sound of applause and cheers.

The two parted, each wearing grins on their lips which had just been pressed together. And to think they'd been worried that everyone would be horrified by their relationship! If anything, everyone seemed to be almost relieved. They'd all more or less noticed something strange going on between the two but had never been able to decipher it.

Now, however, none of it would have to be hidden from the world. Anyone who looked down on them would just have to be put out of the way. They were going to be together, and no one was going to matter in anything that they did with one another. For the first time, it seemed like they were truly going to be able to express their love with one another.

Everything had been tangled up in such an enormous mess for what seemed to be forever, but due to Johnny's idea and quite a bit of leather, it seemed like everything was going to be completely sorted out. Things would never be completely perfect, but in this moment it seemed to be as close as it might ever get.

Shezza and Johnny embraced one another - this time not kissing, but just simply hugging one another as much as they possibly could. No one was upset with them for having any sort of physical contact, so they didn't mess around with it any more.

As the laughter and cheers continued, Greg made his way over towards Molly. She was sporting an enormous grin just as everyone else, much to his delight. He knew that Molly had once had a thing for Shezza (even though he'd been more or less oblivious to it the whole time) and that seeing him kiss someone else might hurt her...but she'd moved on.

She'd moved on to Greg, someone who returned the feelings to her. Somehow, she felt like things would turn out a whole lot better now that she could truly be with someone who she knew would care for her in response. That, and she also felt very happy with the fact that Shezza had managed to find someone he was in love with himself.

Everyone else was also very pleased with the current situation - Shezza and Johnny had caused quite a buzz that left energy zooming around every square inch of the Burger Palace. Not a single person in that room didn't feel happiness coursing through them at that particular moment. It was almost too brilliant.

People were beginning to let themselves loose and enjoy themselves, the situation at the party from several days ago all but forgotten as time went on. No one looked down or like they didn't want to be there - something that could not have been said for the moments before Johnny had strutted in and then managed to reveal his relationship with Shezza.

Even Adler, who was the one who had caused all of the trouble at the party to begin with through her problems and strange behavior, seemed to be having quite a good time watching everything else unfold in front of her.

Adler wore a prideful smile across her cherry red lips - she'd been more responsible for this than anyone would ever realize, after all. Nevertheless, she was enjoying the way this was all turning out. In fact, she couldn't think of anything much better. Johnny had done what he wanted to do and Shezza had responded in the right way.

One day people would realize that Adler controlled just about everything in her own special way, but it would have to wait for some other time. Right now, however, was the day when people would realize that Shezza and Johnny were together (and had been that way for quite some time, despite all of the problems they'd face).

For Adler, that was all she could wish for, even with her own problems. She'd just have to push those aside in order to enjoy what was playing out in front of her. Her smile only continued to grow as she watched what happened next. She seemed to be nothing but a bystander, but she was the one controlling this entire thing as if it were a game.

Nevertheless, there were some things she couldn't take credit for orchestrating in one way or another. Sometimes things managed to work themselves out as time went on, something that she found was nothing more than a delight. It thrilled her to see one good thing to lead to another, even though people tended to peg her down for being negative. What happened next, though, could only be positive.

A very familiar cheerleader came bounding in, her ginger hair bouncing up and down along with her. But once she spotted what was going on, all of her energy seemed to be channeled into absolute shock and something somewhat similar to horror as well. She certainly hadn't been expecting anything that she was currently seeing, and it was directly affecting her.

She never would've seen any of this coming - throughout senior year thus far, everything had been going her way. From the school newspaper to cheerleading, she'd always managed to get what she wanted from it all. But now things seemed to be going all out of whack.

She had been expecting Sherlock to fall for her completely so that she could have herself a proper boyfriend - she wasn't about to go out with the dorky boy who kept hitting on her when she could have a greaser. Not just any greaser, either, but the leader of T-Birds himself. Now, however, that didn't seem to be the case any more.

"Shez! What are you doing?!" Kitty Riley's voice started hitting new octaves - if she kept going no one but dogs could hear what she was saying. "Who is this?" She let out a nearly deafening gasp as she realized who it was standing in front of her.

"Johnny? You two are going out? Johnny, what  _happened_  to you?" All of it was almost too much for her - she felt as if she could very well collapse at any moment. She wasn't used to being in this sort of situation at all - everything always worked out for her. She was the editor for the newspaper. She was a cheerleader. Why wasn't this working out, too?

Her mind started spinning wildly out of control until finally she couldn't take it any longer. With a melodramatic sigh, she swooned and collapsed towards the ground. No one was quite sure what was going on until it was a bit too late to catch her or do anything else to help her. She ended up coming back to her senses a few moments later, but there was still a problem.

"Oh  _no_!" Kitty screeched. "I think I've got a bruise on my cheek!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Sarah called out. She'd already managed to work one miracle on this particular day, there was a good chance she could manage to do it once again. "I can help you fix that!"

"What?" Kitty asked, already starting to get a bit panicked. "How could you help me fix any of it?"

"I just got a job at Woolsworth's, at the cosmetics counter!" Sarah announced proudly. "It's my job to fix this kind of thing! Don't worry about it at all, I can fix it right up."

With Kitty out of the way, Shezza and Johnny could focus on one another and what they wanted to talk about. She'd been a major obstacle to their relationship before, always bursting in at precisely the right time. This time, however, she wasn't going to get in their way.

They sincerely felt like talking at this point in time - the focus wasn't completely on them any longer. Everything had erupted into the best sort of chaos they could ever think of. The best part was that everyone felt happy.

"You were always the one that I wanted," Shezza said. "Sorry that I couldn't have explained it sooner."

"Now that's the sorry I was looking for," Johnny replied. With a smile on his lips, he leaned over and kissed Shezza himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like I posted things out of order...but hey! "You're The One That I Want!"


	20. My Heart Is Set On You

After everything with Shezza and Johnny had taken place, it seemed like every other piece of the puzzle was being put exactly where it needed to be and clicked together. Problems seemed to fade away as if they had never existed to begin with, and there were smiles and laughter to be found in every last nook and cranny of the Burger Palace.

It was maddening to think what a mess they'd all been in just a day ago - now, however, things were truly looking up. It wasn't just Shezza and Johnny who were happy, either. The feelings that they'd brought up with one another was nothing short of infectious. People all felt far more likely to do things they'd never have done at any other time - it simply was an effect of the insane display before them.

Everything continued to work itself out, piece by piece. You looked around just to see more and more things beginning to improve in one way or another. Just a few minutes ago, they'd all been in a rather strange mood. No one had wanted to talk about anything bright or happy, or make any moves.

Perhaps they'd all been inspired by what they'd seen in front of them with Shezza and Johnny, or maybe they were just feeding off of the energy they were providing. No matter what, however, all these good things couldn't all be coincidences. The universe was rarely so lazy.

One truly brilliant thing that had happened was that Kitty had left them all behind. She'd agreed to come to Sarah's post at Woolsworth's to have her cheek fixed up and all, but after that she had bolted away from the group as quickly as she possibly could. These were no longer people she wanted to be around.

All of her plans for the future seemed to have dissolved in a matter of seconds, and she loathed that feeling. How was it that things could be turned upside down so quickly? It just didn't seem right to her for that to be the case. She deserved so much better from the universe - she'd given quite a bit to it, so she expected to recieve it all back.

Since Kitty was so inexperienced with the feeling of losing at anything, she'd ended up storming out. No one paid her anything more than a glance - frankly, she didn't deserve their attention. They had all of their own things to attend to at the current moment.

Sarah, especially, was very pleased as she watched the ginger rush away. She'd been more than happy to help out with Kitty's messed up cheek, but she had her own things to worry about - or rather, one thing. She needed to go to Andy.

Sarah leaned over and pressed her lips up against Andy's cheek. From the spot where her lips met his cheek a blush began to grow and spread across his entire face. All it took was a simple peck on the cheek, and he looked as if he'd been sitting underneath a midsummer sun for an hour.

This only made Sarah laugh, and that joyful sound meeting Andy's ears made him pink up even more. In a moment of impulse she wrapped her arms around him and met him in an embrace, although it seemed almost as if she were just using him to stabilize herself from laughing so hard.

He awkwardly slipped his arms around her shoulders, his eyes starting to bulge from surprise. He didn't know what to do at the moment, so he just sat there with Sarah wrapped up in his arms. It was everything he'd ever wanted - but now he didn't know how to handle it. His eyes started darting around, as if he might be able to find someone who could direct him as to what to do.

Sarah finally broke away from him, right as he had been attempting to make eye contact with Moriarty - he seemed to know what he was doing. After all, despite his feud with Adler the two of them seemed to be getting back together once again. Andy sighed somewhat before realizing he was on his own - but maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

Moriarty slipped a camera and an envelope to Adler when no one was looking. She didn't have to look at them to know precisely what they were - he'd managed to find the camera and the missing photos, somehow. All of her problems from before were now eliminated without a trace.

"How the hell did you manage to get your hands on these?" she whispered over towards him, feeling the tips of her mouth curling upwards in happiness.

"I have my ways," Moriarty replied. "You just have to know the right people, say the right things...then you can get them do anything you want."

"I never even told you they were missing," she sighed.

"I figured - I realized that it made no sense for you to be pregnant, especially because I've been the one driving you around to all of your clients and they've all been female, far as I know..."

"I just wish you'd figured that out sooner before you stormed out of the party the other day," she replied, allowing her eyes to roll around. "You didn't even try to think about my situation before you just left."

As Adler started peekking into the envelope to make sure all of the pictures were there, Moriarty spoke up and said, "Well, the very least you could say to me now is thank you."

"What?" Adler asked.

"Thank you," Moriarty repeated. "That's what you're supposed to say when someone does something nice, right?"

"Okay, fine," Adler said, unable to keep herself from smiling. "Thank you, Moriarty, for finding this for me. And having your goons go through hell in order to make it all work out."

"Hey, hey, hey," Moriaty said. "It's difficult ordering around goons sometimes, especially when you know that things might not end up the way you want them too...but you see what happened here."

"Sometimes I wonder if you'll ever explain to me how you managed to get it."

"Come on, Adler - that would just take all of the fun out of it! You gotta have some mystery, otherwise there's no point in any of it."

They were arguing, yes, but it was the most good-natured and friendly argument anyone had ever witnessed before in their life. Sarah noticed this in particular, and after she ended up seperating herself from Andy's arms she walked over to Adler and Moriarty, keeping her confidence about her.

"You two look pretty happy," Sarah noted. "Is there a reason for that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Adler said, heaving her shoulders up in a shrug. "How about you think about it for a few moments and then tell me what you'll come up with?"

"Always trying to keep things mysterious, aren't you?" Moriarty said, giving a roll of his eyes.

"Hey, you were the one who kept on saying you liked keeping things secret! It's what makes things fun, yeah?"

Sarah's eyes flicked between the two for several moments - no matter what, she still felt as if she was missing part of the puzzle. Nevertheless, she decided that something had definitely happened, and both Adler and Moriarty were pleased about it. That, all by itself, was quite a good thing in her opinion.

"Everything good between you two, then?" Sarah asked, sending a small smile over in their direction.

"Everything is more than good," Moriarty replied with a grin. "Everything is great."

At this point, Andy decided it was time for him to join up with Sarah. He supposed they were kind of in a relationship at this point, and therefore she wouldn't mind if he came and added his part to the conversation. He was correct about this - Sarah smiled over to him when he walked to her, and gestured for him to stand right next to her and join in.

"So, er...I've been wondering...have you two been going out at all?" he asked Adler and Moriarty.

"Andy!" Sarah hissed, elbowing Andy's arm.

"Going out?" Adler repeated, raising her eyebrows. Almost as if they were synced together through their brainwaves, she and Moriarty turned and met one another's eyes at the exact same moment. "No, we were never going out. And we never will."

"You know, you can be good friends with someone," Moriarty said. "Just because she's a girl doesn't mean that she's into me."

At this, Adler couldn't help but roll her eyes. "I'm not into you at all. Never have been. Never will be."

"And I'm more than okay with that," he said.

The two shared yet another knowing glance - of course Adler wasn't "into" Moriarty. She wasn't exactly "into" people of his gender to begin with, and she probably would never end up with someone like him even if she was.

Nevertheless, everything seemed to be working out for her now that she'd recieved her pictures and camera back. She could go back into her work without another worry - although Adler would end up trying to be more careful when she went about everything in order to make sure she could avoid this sort of situation all over again.

She continued speaking to Sarah, Andy, and of course Moriarty, but her eyes wandered about whenever she wasn't directly trying to speak to anyone. She ended up glancing to the side to see if she could spot any more budding romance in the Burger Palace. It wasn't long before she'd found precisely what she was looking for.

Greg and Molly were still attached by the hands, but now they were sharing a milkshake as well. Greg had wanted chocolate and Molly had wanted strawberry, but they decided they'd be better off just compromising and getting mint. Besides, they were more interested in being together than what flavor milkshake they got.

And then, of course, once they'd downed their milkshake together (something that wouldn't take all too long), they'd be able to go ahead and get a large order of fries to share with one another. After the display of love between Shezza and Johnny, they'd really been feeling rather romantic themselves.

The dance had shown that they could work together and had a great time doing so, so they couldn't help but think they might be better off spending more and more time together. They'd never been very successful at romance in the past for one reason or another, but together they could work it out.

The two were more or less made for one another - and it wasn't just because they needed someone to share a large burger with. They would more than likely be going steady for quite a long while...and then who knew what might happen?

Molly tended to worry about her future more than she admitted to for anything and everything in her life. She'd experienced a lot of pain throughout her time, but at the end of the day she found that things had quite a good possibility of working off.

One of the most striking things about it all were due to the fact that she could see herself along with Greg for quite a long while. She didn't dare bring it up to his face in fear of frightening him off, but she knew that things could work out as long as she allowed herself to go through with it.

They weren't the only ones who certainly seemed to have a brilliant future ahead of them. Johnny and Shezza themselves were the couple everyone felt would most likely end up succeeding, now that they'd placed their past in the dust. They wouldn't forget everything they'd been through, but now they were more or less starting their relationship over.

As soon as Johnny had started making his own path in life rather than trying to follow the ones set directly in front of his feet, things had started looking up. Now his boyfriend didn't have to be secret, and they were going to be together for quite a while. He could see great things happening with the two of them - it would be as close to perfect as they could possibly get.

Somehow, the two were just about perfect for one another. The two were so very different in so many ways, and that only seemed to help them fit together even better. No matter how much hell they'd been through, they'd always managed to make it through simply because they seemed to belong with one another.

They could balance one another out in all sorts of ways. Sometimes it didn't seem to make sense how they'd ended up with each other to begin with, but perhaps it had been fate that pushed the two of them together all the way back then. Even so, it seemed almost definite that something had been working to make sure they ended up together no matter what.

Johnny had been putting a fair amount of thought into this idea, and he was just about ready to share what he'd thought up with Shezza. However, he was going to take this opportunity to be as flirty as he could possibly manage.

"So are you going to be a chemist?" Johnny asked.

For a few moments, Shezza stared over at him - he was perplexed by this statement. It might've made more sense coming from the boy he'd known before this particular day, but it still seemed to come from nowhere.

"What has any of this got to do with chemistry?" Shezza replied. He wasn't used to not understanding things - not knowing was one of his least favorite things of all, even when it was coming from Johnny. Then again, this "new" sort of Johnny seemed to be a hell of a lot more enigmatic when it came to those smaller things - and in a way, it was pretty attractive.

Johnny waited to give the answer, wanting to up the suspense that was hanging in the air around them. If he was going to say this, then he wanted everything to feel perfect. He wanted to make Shezza want to know, something that drove him crazy.

But at the same time, there were few things that Shezza adored more than a proper mystery. As long as Johnny remained his Johnny, it wouldn't matter to him if there were a few engmatic moments along the way. At this particular moment, however, he couldn't seem to figure out what chemistry had to do with their current situation.

Johnny loved it - he was getting devoted attention from Shezza and perplexing him all at the same time. Deciding to no longer torture Shezza in such a way, he gave his explanation.

"Oh, we've got real chemistry. There's one hell of a bond between us - we'll always be together."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "We'll Be Together." That is all.


End file.
